NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday held that the minimum punishment for a murder is ‘imprisonment for life,’ once the offence is established under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), with no scope for a judge’s discretion to award lesser sentence.
The Bench of Justices RK Agrawal and Abhay Manohar Sapre dismissed an appeal of Bharatkumar Barot of Mehsana, upholding the Gujarat High Court enhancing the punishment from 10 years’ jail to life term. Noting that Section 302 IPC in clear terms provides death or life imprisonment plus fine to whosoever commits murder, the Court said any punishment less than life term awarded by any court is “per se illegal and without authority of law.”
“Indeed, there is no such discretion left with the court in awarding the punishment except to award the punishment which is prescribed under Section 302 IPC. Barot was sentenced to 10 years” jail by Mehsana”s additional sessions judge in September 2014 for the murder of one Dilipbhai Ratnaji in 2012.