rarest of rare

For murder, life imprisonment is the rule and death the exception. In Bachan Singh the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty but held that it may be given only in the “rarest of rare cases”, when the alternative of life imprisonment is unquestionably foreclosed. The court must weigh aggravating circumstances (of the crime) against mitigating circumstances (of the criminal), giving full weight to the possibility of reform, and must record special reasons for choosing death (old s.354(3) CrPC, carried into the BNSS).

Machhi Singh grouped the cases into five categories: manner of commission, motive, anti-social or abhorrent nature, magnitude, and personality of the victim. Later benches stress that these categories do not replace the individual balancing that Bachan Singh requires.

Example

The trial court did not consider the accused's age or the chance of reform, so the death sentence failed the rarest of rare test in Bachan Singh.

In Indian law

• Bachan Singh v. State of Punjab, 1980 INSC 120
• Machhi Singh v. State of Punjab, 1983 INSC 78: five categories of rarest of rare cases
• Section 103, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (old s.302 IPC): punishment for murder

See also

death penalty · murder · sentence · theories of punishment

Read more in the study notes

• The rarest of rare doctrine (Penology and Victimology)
• Punishments under the BNS, including community service (Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita)
• Questions of law, fact and discretion (Jurisprudence)
• Theories of punishment (Jurisprudence)
• Kinds of punishment: historical and modern (Penology and Victimology)
• The riddle of capital punishment (Penology and Victimology)