The court emphasized the importance of considering the delay in execution of the death sentence from the date of the final decision of the court, and cited legal principles to reject the plea to commute the death sentence due to the delay.

Arun Kumar, J. - The appellant has preferred this appeal against the judgment of the Allahabad High Court upholding his conviction and sentence. The sessions court while convicting the appellant under Section 302 Indian Penal Code, had awarded death sentence. The case against the appellant is that he alongwith his companion Lakha Singh (who died during the course of trial proceedings) committed the murder of thirteen members of his family in the night of 17th August, 1986. The petitioner was living jointly with several other members of his family in a big house called in local language as jhalla. Thirteen persons of the family who were killed on that fateful night were father of the appellant, his two real elder brothers, wives of both the brothers, four daughters and two sons of one of the brothers who was murdered and two sons of another slain brother. The only members of the family who survived the murderous attack are one brother of the appellant namely Balwinder, his wife, who was away to her parents house and was, therefore, not present in the house on the date of occurrence and some children. As far as appellants brother Man Singh is concerned, his almost entire family was finished as he and his wife and four daughters and two sons were subjected to the murderous attack resulting in their deaths. Family of another brother Karam Singh was also finished as both the husband and wife were killed alongwith two young sons aged 9 years and 4 years at the time of the incident. Only one son of Karam Singh who is named Paramjeet Singh survived. He is P.W.2. Six children of Man Singh who were killed were between the ages of 3 to 9 years. Even two of the surviving members of the family who appeared as P.W.1 and P.W.3, received injuries in the attack.

2. As per the prosecution case both the accused came with swords and started shouting and indiscriminately attacking the members of the family who were asleep at various places in the house. It is in evidence that it was a moonlit night. One Jawahar had accompanied the accused. He was a servant. No particular role was assigned to Jawahar except that he was throwing brickbats on the terrace where some of the members of the family were sleeping and was shouting at them to come down. Jawahar was acquitted by the trial court and the State did not appeal against his acquittal. The other accused Lakha Singh died during trial. The trial Court convicted the appellant for offence under Section 302 Indian Penal Code and sentenced him to death. Since it was a case of death sentence, reference was made to the High Court for confirmation of sentence. The appellant also filed appeal against his conviction before the High Court.

3. The case of the prosecution is that the appellant had been married about one year prior to the date of incident. He was part of the family and was staying together with other members in the same house. The entire family was joint. The family was suspecting unnatural relationship between his newly married wife and his friend Lakha Singh, co-accused. Lakha Singh used to visit her very often and even stayed with her. The relationship between the two was felt to be unnatural. The family, therefore, was objecting to Lakha Singhs visits and presence in the house which was not liked by the appellant as also by Lakha Singh. Therefore, they both decided to finish the entire family and in furtherance of this common intention they came with swords in their hands on the fateful night and started the murderous attack on family members. They did not spare even the father of the appellant Nazir Singh who was sleeping at a distance near the tubewell and to finish him the accused had to go there. Other family members were sleeping in the house at different places. The family members started shouting and running here and there to save themselves. But the two accused having swords in their hands attacked whosoever was within their reach. The wife of one of the brothers tried to escap