JUDGMENT

SARKARIA, J. :— Ambaram was tried and convicted for murder of Kachru by the Sessions Judge and sentenced to death. The High Court of Madhya Pradesh has confirmed the sentence of death. His appeal limited to the question of sentence, by special leave, is now before us. The appellant was tried along with four other persons for the double murder of Kachru and Parwat. It is said it was the appellant who shot dead. Kachru, while his companions assaulted Parwat to death with sharp-edged weapons and a lathi. The trial Court recorded conviction of the appellant after the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 had come into force. The learned Judges of the High Court do not appear to have averted at all to the changes brought about in the matter of awarding a death sentence by Section 354 (3) of the new Code. Sub-section (5) of Section 367 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 as it stood before the Amending Act 26 of 1955, enjoined upon the Court convicting a person of a capital offence to give reasons why imprisonment for life, instead of a death sentence was being awarded. That is to say, at that time the normal sentence to be awarded to a person found guilty of murder was death, an