IMPORTANT POINT
Rarest of rare cases; and Imprisonment for life.

JUDGMENT

P.Sathasivam, J.

These appeals are filed against the common final judgment and order dated 30.05.2008 passed by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh in Murder Reference No. 8 of 2007 and Criminal Appeal No. 1033- DB of 2007 whereby the High Court accepted the murder reference and confirmed the death sentence imposed on the appellant herein by the Sessions Judge, Ludhiana by order dated 22.11.2007 in Session Case No. 32 of 2006 and dismissed the appeal filed by him.

2. Brief facts:

(a) According to the prosecution, on 08.01.2006, the appellant-accused has committed murder of his wife-Veena Verma and daughter-Geetu Verma in the background of inimical relationship between them on account of criminal cases registered against him by his wife for committing rape on his minor daughter–Geetu Verma, for which he was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for 12 years, and for attacking her after release on parole in January, 2005 for which an FIR was registered against him.

(b) On the date of incident, i.e., 08.01.2006, at around 06:30 p.m., when Shalu Verma-the complainant, daughter of the appellant-accused was present along with her mother-Veena Verma and sister-Geetu Verma in their house at village Partap Singh Wala, Haibowal, Ludhiana, at that time, the appellant- accused, who was living separately in a rented accommodation, came to the said place carrying a Kulhara (axe) in his hand. The complainant informed her mother about the same. When Veena Verma came to the lobby of the house, the appellant-accused gave an axe blow on her head. She fell on the ground and, thereafter, he gave two more blows using axe on her neck and hand. Immediately after that, he stepped towards Geetu Verma and gave 3 repeated blows on her head. Both of them smeared with blood and died on the spot. When he approached Shalu, she went into the room and bolted the same from inside. The appellant-accused fled away leaving the axe at the spot. After sometime, she came outside the room and raised hue and cry.

(c) On the basis of the statement of Shalu (PW-2), a First Information Report (FIR) being No. 6 was registered against the appellant-accused under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (in short “the IPC”) at P.S. Haibowal, Ludhiana. On the same day, the appellant-accused was arrested from his rented house and the case was committed to the Court of Session, Ludhiana and numbered as Session Case No. 32 of 2006

(d) The Sessions Judge, Ludhiana, by order dated 22.11.2007, convicted the appellant under Section 302 of IPC and sentenced him to death.

(e) Against the said order, the appellant preferred an appeal before the High Court and the State filed a reference under Section 366 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (in short ‘the Code’) for confirmation of death sentence. By a common impugned order dated 30.05.2008, the High Court while accepting the murder reference confirmed the death reference imposed by the trial Court and dismissed the appeal filed by the appellant-accused.

(f) Aggrieved by the said judgment, the appellant preferred these appeals by way of special leave before this Court.

(g) This Court, by order dated 20.07.2009, issued notice on the special leave petitions confining to sentence only. Even on 16.07.2010 when this Court granted leave, nothing has been stated about the above said initial notice. Hence, in these appeals, we are concerned about the quantum of sentence imposed on the appellant.

3. Heard Mr. Tripurari Raj, learned counsel for the appellant and Mr. V. Madhukar, learned Additional Advocate General for the respondent-State.

4. Though at the outset, learned counsel for the appellant insisted us to go into the entire merits of the case including the circumstances relied on by the prosecution and accepted by the Courts below, in view of the fact that this Court has issued notice confining to sentence only, we rejected his plea.

5. We are conscious of the fact that in terms of Section 366(1) of the Code