AMN
The Supreme Court has said, courts should impose punishment to the guilty befitting crime so that public abhorrence of the offence committed is reflected. It said, the question of awarding sentence is a matter of discretion to be exercised on consideration of circumstances aggravating and mitigating in the individual cases.
A bench comprising justices T S Thakur and R Banumathi said, law courts have been consistent in the approach that a reasonable proportion has to be maintained between the seriousness of the crime and the punishment. The observations came while hearing an appeal filed by a Haryana native who had approached the apex court against Punjab and Haryana High Court judgement by which it had reduced the sentence imposed on six persons who had assaulted his father in August, 1993.
Later, the petitioner’s father slipped in coma and succumbed to injuries.
The apex court, which refused to interfere with High Court’s decision, enhanced the compensation to the family and directed them to pay 1,25,000 rupees each along with additional fine of 1 lakh rupees each. The bench said, as far as the award of compensation is concerned, particularly in the case of homicidal death, monetary benefits cannot be equated with the life of a person and the society’s cry for justice. It said, object is just to mitigate hardship that is caused to the deceased.