The judgment establishes the importance of medical evidence in proving insanity and the admissibility of extrajudicial confessions. It also emphasizes the principles for considering death sentence in 'rarest of rare' cases.

P.G. Agarwal, J.

1. The above mentioned Death Reference and the Criminal Appeal have arisen out of the judgment and order, dated 12.11.2001, passed by the Deputy Commissioner,. Pasighat in Sessions Trial Case No. GR 93/ 94 whereby the accused Tadon Tatik was convicted for the offence under Section 302IPC and sentenced to capital punishment of death. The Reference is for confirmation as required under Section 368 Code of Criminal Procedure, read with Regulation 30(i) of the Assam Frontier (Administration of Justice) Regulation, 1945. The appeal has been preferred by the accused Appellant.

2. The incident for which the accused has been tried in the above case, took place way back on 13.7.1994 and this is second round of litigation before us. The accused was earlier tried and vide judgment dated 30.1.1997, the trial Court imposed capital punishment of death and the matter came up before this Court in Criminal Death Reference No. 1/97 and Criminal Appeal No. 96/1997 and 70(J) of 1997 which was disposed of vide judgment and order, dated 24.6.1997. The case was reported in 1997 (III) GLT 594 whereby this Court set aside the conviction and sentence and remanded the matter back for de-novo trial in accordance with law and as per directions contained therein. Pursuant to the above directions, the case was tried de-novo and the witnesses were examined afresh and the impugned judgment was delivered by the trial Court. It may be mentioned here that as per the directions of this Court, the trial Court has engaged Shri D. Gogoi, a senior lawyer of Dibrugarh Bar to defend the accused. However, the accused made a prayer in writing that he desires to be defended by Shri Muk Pertin, the learned defence Counsel and as such the trial Court had no other alternative but to appoint Shri Muk Pertin as defence Counsel. It seems that the trial Court has complied with the directions of this Court and the constitutional right of the accused to be defended by a lawyer of his choice has prevailed and hence, no objection has been raised on that count. So far furnishing of copies of documents Under Section 207 Code of Criminal Procedure is concerned, the same was duly completed with. As regards the requirement of appointment of interpreter is concerned, the trial Court has this to say:

It was also instructed by the High Court that the proceedings of the Court should be in a language which can be understood by the accused. If the accused cannot understand the proceedings an interpreter was to be appointed for him. For this the educational qualification of the accused was ascertained. The accused is an under graduate having studied upto B.A. IIIrd Year and was working as a school teacher and Office Assistant (UDC) for sometime before taking up the profession of a contractor. He is not only capable of understanding but also reading and writing English to a satisfactory level. Hence it was not necessary to apply any interpreter during the trial.

3. The prosecution allegation, in brief, is that the accused, was a contractor by profession, used to reside along with two wives, Sumi Tatik (P.W.-6) and Parvoty Jamoh (P.W.-5). The accused had a son and daughter through his first wife Sumi Tatik (P.W.-6) and son through the second wife Parvoty (P.W.-5). From the materials on record, we find that the accused used to live with all the worldly comforts and he had also four servants for his domestic help. On the fateful day of 13.7.1994, the two wives of the accused were away from the house and around noontime while his servants were watching T.V., the accused took his children to his bed room and closed the door. After some time, as stated by Rajendra Kr. Das (P.W.-1), the accused came out of the bedroom with a dao in his hand and stated 'I have finished all the children'. There was blood marks on his body. The servants out of fear ran out of the room. The accused came to the police Station and reported the incident, which was registered as GD Entry. Police came to th