The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its verdict on appeals of four convicts against the conviction and award of death penalty in the December 16, 2012 gangrape and murder case that had shaken the entire nation's conscience.
Besides dealing with the challenge to the conviction, the court is also deliberating on the issue of the quantum of sentence to the convicts as it has been alleged that the trial court did not separately consider ‘mitigating’ circumstances of each convicts while sending them to the gallows.
While Delhi Police sought capital punishment for the convicts, the defence counsel said they deserve leniency considering their poor family background and young age.
The police told a three-judge Bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra that the horrific crime committed by these men warranted death penalty and the test of being a ‘rarest of rare’ case was satisfied in this matter.
Senior advocate Sidharth luthra, representing the police, argued that the court should also consider the effect of the crime committed by them on the victim and the society at large. “The way they (convicts) brutalised the young lady warrants death penalty,” he told the bench, also comprising Justices R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan.