Our forgiving nature must end: Supreme Court on leniency to death row convicts

In a stark moment of judicial self-reflection, the Supreme Court on Thursday criticised its habit of showing leniency to murder convicts, particularly those facing the death penalty.

A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu remarked that the Court's "forgiving nature" has at times backfired and caused problems.

Justice Datta opined that the court needs to re-evaluate its traditional restraint when examining whether the death penalty should be awarded in murder cases.

"Times have changed. In earlier days murder leading to death (sentence) was on the basis of rarest of rare cases, because murders were rare. Is it the same now? Now murder is not a rare (offence)," Justice Datta observed.

The judge recounted a past case where the Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of a convict, only for him to commit another horrific crime after being released on parole.

"It is because of our forgiving nature that India is facing these problems. Forgive, forgive, forgive, you have to draw a line somewhere. This court commuted death sentence in a case where a father raped and murdered his elder daughter. (He) goes to jail on life imprisonment on the basis of the mother’s testimony. After some years, the father comes out on parole and murders the mother in front of his younger daughter. On the younger daughter’s testimony, he is given death sentence. And then the death sentence is commuted to life sentence by the Supreme Court on the ground that he did not murder the younger child. This is Supreme Court (which passed the commutation order). That is why we say, our forgiving nature has to come to an end somewhere," Justice Datta said.

The Court was hearing an appeal by a convict who had been sentenced to death but had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment.

The convict approached the Supreme Court seeking a premature release from prison.

The case concerned one Sanjeev Kumar, who was convicted of multiple murders and sentenced to death in May 2004. While the Punjab and Haryana High Court initially commuted his sentence to life imprisonment in 2005, the Supreme Court reversed that decision in 2007 and restored his death penalty.

Following the rejection of his mercy petitions by both the Governor and the President, Kumar approached the top court again, which commuted his execution back to life imprisonment in January 2014 solely due to executive delays in deciding his mercy plea.

Having completed 20 years of his actual sentence, Kumar subsequently applied for a premature release under Haryana’s 2002 remission policy.

In August 2024, the State rejected his bid to walk free and directed that he remain in prison for the rest of his life. The authorities cited his poor prison record - including an attempted escape by digging a tunnel in 2008 and absconding from furlough for nearly three years. It further noted that his sentence had been commuted only on procedural grounds rather than on merits.

Kumar challenged that rejection before the High Court, which set aside the State's order in December 2025. The High Court held that the authorities could not consider old misconduct beyond the mandated five-year window preceding the application. The High Court, therefore, directed the State to re-evaluate his case while granting him interim bail.

This ruling was then challenged before the Supreme Court, prompting Justice Datta’s observations today on where judicial forgiveness ultimately leads.

After hearing both sides, the Court ultimately reserved its verdict in the case.