IMPORTANT POINTS
In absence of any criminal antecedent an accused cannot be described as a hardened criminal.
Socio-economic factors, Non availability of proper legal representation and possibility of reformation of the accused are mitigating circumstances.

JUDGMENT

Madan B. Lokur, J.

The broad allegations against the appellant have been stated in the decision of this Court in the criminal appeal out of which the present Review Petition arises. It would be more convenient to reproduce the allegations from the decision:

"On the intervening night of 6th and 7th January, 2001, when inmates of Aluva Municipal Town of Ernakulam District in the State of Kerala were in deep sleep, Manjooran House located in the midst of the town became a scene of ghastly crime. Six members of one family in the Manjooran House lost their lives in a matter of three hours, Antony @ Antappan, the appellant herein, in search of greener pastures abroad for which purposehe needed money but was refused to be paid by the members of the Manjooran family, and therefore as per the prosecution's version used knife, axe, and electrocuted and strangulated Kochurani and Clara at about 10 in the night of 6.1.2001 and Augustine, his wife Mary, and their children - Divya and Jesmon at midnight. The Manjooran House full of life at 10 in the night by the stroke of midnight became a graveyard. The appellant after causing the death of Kochurani and Clara is said to have waited for the arrival of other four members of the family who had gone to see a film show. On their arrival he turned them into corpses. He waited for their arrival to kill them as he knew that for the two murders committed earlier by him he would be suspected by them, as he was in the house when they left the house for the film show. The prosecution alleges that all these murders were cold blooded, planned and executed with precision and the appellant ensured that there is no trace of life left in them before he left the scene of occurrence. When put to trial for murders, appellant, however, pleaded innocence and claimed trial."

2. After trial, the Sessions Court in Ernakulam in Kerala in Sessions Case No. 154 of 2004 found the appellant guilty of the offences and convicted him by judgment and order dated 31st January, 2005. It appears that submissions on the question whether the appellant should be awarded life sentence or death sentence were addressed on the same day or immediately thereafter since on 2nd February, 2005 the Trial Judge sentenced the appellant "to be hanged by the neck till he is dead".

3. The Trial Judge stated, while awarding the sentence of death, as follows:

"231. The cruel tendency of the accused was writ large even in the manner of attack. His conduct and behaviour is repulsive to the collective conscience of the society. It is clear that he does not value the lives of others in the least. The fact that the murders in this case were committed in such a deliberate and diabolic manner even beyond the slight expectation of the victims, without any provocation whatsoever from the side of the victims that too having enjoyed the hospitality and kindness of the victims, indicate the cold blooded and premeditated approach of the accused to put to death the victims which included two innocent children in their earlier teenages also, for a sordid purpose.

232. It was clearly come out that his wife and child are not residing with the accused. He does not know even the school at which his wife is working as teacher. Even according to him, she has not cared to come to reside with him after the incident in this case. In fact, all my searches for extenuating circumstances in this case are in vain. From various judicial pronouncements of the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India on the subject, it has come out that in the choice of sentence the court has to weigh the aggravating and mitigating factors available on the facts of the case to find out whether special reasons do exist to categories [categorize] the case as one among the "rarest of rare cases".

233. The accused is a hardened criminal beyond any correction and rehabilitation. In this case the culpability has assumed the preparation of extreme depravity. The accused is a preferred example of blood thirsty,