SC’s forgiving nature led to rise in crime: Justice Datta

The Supreme Court on Thursday orally remarked that due to its forgiving nature in commutation of death sentences, the country is witnessing an increase in crime and this has to “come to an end somewhere”.

A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu was hearing a plea seeking premature release of a life convict whose death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in a murder case. Justice Datta orally remarked that earlier murder convictions were based on the ‘rarest of rare’ doctrine but times have changed.

“It is because of our forgiving nature that India is facing these problems. Forgive, forgive, forgive, you have to draw a line somewhere,” he said. Justice Datta recalled that the Supreme Court commuted death sentence in a case where a man raped and murdered his elder daughter.

“The father goes to jail on life imprisonment on the basis of the mother’s testimony. After some years, the father comes out on parole and murders the mother in front of his younger daughter. “On the younger daughter’s testimony, he is given death sentence. And then death sentence is commuted to life sentence by the Supreme Court on the ground that he did not murder the younger child. That is why we say, our forgiving nature has to come to an end somewhere,” he said.