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Supreme Court Justice Questions Leniency in Murder Cases
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CNBC TV18•08-10-2026, 21:17
Supreme Court Justice Questions Leniency in Murder Cases
- •Supreme Court Justice Dipankar Datta questioned the court's approach of showing leniency to murder convicts.
- •Justice Datta warned that the court's forgiving nature has sometimes backfired and led to further crimes.
- •The bench was hearing a plea for premature release by Sanjeev Kumar, whose death sentence was earlier commuted to life imprisonment.
- •Justice Datta noted that times have changed and murders are no longer rare offenses, suggesting a rethink on the death penalty.
Key Questions Answered
Supreme Court Justice Dipankar Datta questioned the court's traditional approach of showing leniency to murder convicts, stating that its forgiving nature had sometimes backfired and led to further crimes.
The bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu was hearing a plea filed by Sanjeev Kumar, a convict whose death sentence had previously been commuted to life imprisonment.
Justice Datta observed that times have changed, noting that while murders were once rare and formed the basis for the rarest of rare cases, murder is no longer a rare offence today.
