New Delhi, Nov 30: Asking trial courts to impose appropriate sentence keeping in mind facts of the case, the supreme court has sounded a warning that inadequate sentence imposed on an offender would do more harm to the justice system and undermine public confidence in the efficacy of law. This ruling was given by a bench comprising Justice Doraiswamy Raju and Justice Arijit Pasayat which increased the sentence from 46 days imposed by the Karnataka High Court to five years on a person guilty of raping a woman in the advanced stage of pregnancy.
The bench said "protection of society and stamping out of criminal proclavity must be the object of law which must be achieved by imposing appropriate sentence."
Justice Pasayat, writing the judgement for the bench allowing an appeal by the Karnataka government, said the law should adopt the corrective machinery or the deterrence ideology based on factual matrix.
"Undue sympathy to impose inadequate sentence would do more harm to the justice system to undermine public confidence in the efficacy of law and society could not long endure such serious threats," he said.
"It is, therefore, the duty of every court to award proper sentence having regard to the nature of the offence and the manner in which it was executed or committed etc.," the apex court said.
Bureau Report