MUNIAPPAN Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant, Muniappan, was convicted by the learned Sessions Judge, Dharmapuri under Section 302 of the Penal Code and was sentenced to death on the charge that he had committed the murder of his mother's brother also called Muniappan and his son Chinnaswamy. The conviction for murder and the sentence of death having been confirmed by the High Court of Madras by a judgment dated October 23, 1979, this appeal has been filed by the accused by special leave. The leave is limited to the question of sentence:

(2.) The judgments of the High Court and the Sessions Court, in so far as the sentence is concerned, leave much to be desired. In the first place, the Sessions Court overlooked the provision contained in Section 354 (3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, which provides, in so far as is relevant, that when the conviction is for an offence punishable with death, the judgment shall in the case of sentence of death state special reasons for such sentence. The learned Sessions Judge, in a very brief paragraph consisting of two sentences, has this to say on the question of sentence

(3.) The High Court condemned the murders in terms equally strong by calling them "cold blooded" and thought that its duty to consider the propriety of the death sentence began and ended with that assertion. Its failure to see the failings of the Sessions Court in the matter of sentencing led to an unexamined confirmation of the death sentence.