The Supreme Court on Monday referred to a Constitution Bench the question of how to provide accused in death penalty cases a “meaningful, real and effective” hearing of their mitigating circumstances before a trial judge.
A three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit said the presentation of mitigating factors by an accused to avoid the “extreme penalty of death” was a “valuable right”.
But in many death cases now, an accused person is condemned to the gallows by the trial judge after a rather “formal” if not cosmetic sentence hearing. Again, in some cases, the sentence hearing happens on the very same day an order of conviction is pronounced against the accused.
