JUDGMENT

BHAGWATI, J.: — This appeal, by special leave, is limited only to the question of sentence. The appellant has been sentenced to death for an offence under Section 302 of the Penal Code. The question is: Should the extreme penalty of death be commuted to one of life imprisonment? To answer the question it is necessary to state a few facts.

2. The appellant and a few others were tried in the Court of the Sessions Judge, Unnao for offences under Section 148 and Section 302 read with Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code. The learned Sessions Judge, on an appreciation of the evidence, found that the appellant, SheoDayal, Mihi lal, Dularey and Mewa Lal had formed an unlawful assembly and in pursuance of its common object, the appellant had intentionally caused the death of one Ram Kumar by inflicting on him a severe injury with a banka severing his head from the body and then carried away the head in an angaucha in a most brutal and inhuman fashion. On this finding, the learned Sessions Judge convicted the appellant, Sheo Dayal,Mihi Lal, Dularey and Mewa Lal of offences under Section 148 and Section 302 read with Sec. 149 and sentenced each of them to rigorous imprisonment for on