In Brief
Chhannu Lal Verma was convicted of murdering three persons and attempting to murder another. The trial court and High Court imposed the death penalty, finding it a 'rarest of rare case'. The Supreme Court held that while the crime was serious, procedural safeguards were violated (no bifurcated sentencing hearing), and critical mitigating factors were overlooked—particularly the convict's good conduct in jail over four years, lack of prior criminal record, and the false rape allegation that motivated the crime. The Court applied the principle that death is the exception, not the rule, and that life imprisonment must be the default unless reformation is impossible. Finding reformation capacity existed, the Court commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment, noting systemic inconsistencies in applying capital punishment principles.",
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