INDIA. ‘JUDGES SHOULD NOT BE LENIENT WHILE DEALING WITH GRAVE CRIMES’

June 29, 2008: Judges should not be lenient while sentencing those who have committed brutal crimes such as rape and multiple murders, according to Justice AR. Lakshmanan, Chairman, Law Commission of India.
Reacting to a Madras High Court judgment that killing a four-year-old boy after committing sodomy and continuing to have unnatural sex with a nine-year-old boy was not the rarest of rare offence warranting death penalty, he said: “Misplaced sympathy cannot have any place while deciding criminal matters.”
Lakshmanan said criminal matters had to be decided on the basis of evidence. “Once proved, there is no question of lenience at all. The court has to accept the evidence and award an appropriate sentence.” (Sources: The Hindu, 29/06/2008)