Supreme Court of India

Chhannu Lal Verma v. The State of Chhattisgarh

Neutral citation

Reported as [2018] 14 S.C.R. 355

Bench Kurian Joseph, Deepak Gupta and Hemant Gupta JJ.

Decided 28 November 2018

INSC stands for INDIAN SUPREME COURT. A neutral citation scheme assigned by the Court itself, so a judgment can be cited without depending on a commercial law reporter. INSC is the neutral citation scheme assigned by the Supreme Court, so a judgment can be cited without depending on a commercial law reporter.

5 Supreme Court benches have cited this judgment.

What the Court ordered

We hold that the imposition of death sentence was not the only option and hence the same needs to be commuted to imprisonment for life.

Judgment, page 16

From the headnote

Administration of Criminal Justice – Capital punish ment – Commutation of – Appellant allegedly murdered three perso ns and caused grievous injuries to others – Sessions Court convicted the appellant u/ss. 302, 307, 506 (2) and 450, IPC – igh Court confirmed the conviction and death sentence – On ap peal, held: High Court erroneously confirmed the death penalty – No eviden ce as to the uncommon nature of the offence or the imp robability of reformation or rehabilitation of the appellant was adduced – De ath penalty is to be awarded only in the rarest of rare cases wher e life imprisonment is

Authorities it was built on

1983 Machhl Singh and Others v. State of Punjab cited by 60
2009 Santosh Kumar Satishbhushan Bariyar v. State of Maharashtra cited by 54
2012 Sangeet & Anr. v. State of Haryana cited by 32
2014 Shatrughan Chauhan & Anr. v. Union of India & Ors. cited by 21
2013 Shankar Kisanrao Khade v. State of Maharashtra cited by 20
2012 Sonu Sardar v. State of Chhatisgarh cited by 1

Where later benches applied it

2023 Madan v. State of Uttar Pradesh referred to
2023 Rajo @ Rajwa @ Rajendra Mandal v. The State of Bihar & Ors. referred to
2023 Vikas Chaudhary v. The State of Delhi referred to
2022 Manoj & Ors v. State of Madhya Pradesh referred to
2020 Manoj Suryavanshi v. State of Chhattisgarh referred to

Of those, 5 referred to

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