GUIDELINES FOR GIVING DEATH SENTENCE IN CASE OF RAPE OF A MINOR
Recently Apex Court in the case of “ Ravi verses State of Maharashtra” in Criminal Appeal no. 1488-89 of 2018 decided on 03 rd October 2019” by 2:1 majority dismissed the appeal of appellant against the Judgment dated 20.01.2016 passed by Bombay High Court confirming the death reference in the Sessions Case No. 127 of 2012 decided by the Additional Sessions Judge, Jalna, in which the appellant having been found guilty of committing offences punishable under Sections 302, 363, 376 and 377 of the Indian Penal Code (for short, “the IPC”), has been awarded the sentence of death under Section 302, IPC along with the sentence of rigorous imprisonment(s) of different durations with fine for the rest of offences At the outset both the Trial Court and the Bombay High Court have concurrently held that the aforesaid case falls within the exceptional category of `rarest of the rare’ cases and where all other alternative sentence,, are excluded except death sentence. In this case the