A bench of justices B S Chauhan and Swatanter Kumar also said that there is no scope for judicial review of pardons, reprieves and remissions as they are the prerogative of the President or Governor and the government as the case may be.
"The courts should impose a punishment befitting the crime so that the courts are able to accurately reflect public abhorrence of the crime.
"It is the nature and gravity of the crime, and not the criminal, which are germane for consideration of appropriate punishment in a criminal trial.
"Imposition of sentence without considering its effect on social order in many cases may be in reality, a futile exercise," the apex court said.
The bench passed the observation while dismissing the appeal filed by the Uttar Pradesh government challenging the commutation of death sentence to life imprisonment of Sanjay Kumar, who raped and murdered a 18-year-old girl on February 24, 2007, at Varanasi.
The high court had commuted the death sentence awarded by the sessions court, upon recording its conclusion that it was not among the "rarest of rare cases", in which death penalty could be awarded.
Aggrieved, the state government appealed in the apex court.
"The survival of an orderly society demands the extinction of the life of a person who is proved to be a menace to social order and security.
"Thus, the courts for the purpose of deciding just and appropriate sentence to be awarded for an offence, have to delicately balance the aggravating and mitigating factors and circumstances in which a crime has been committed, in a dispassionate manner," the apex court said. (More)
