JOSEPH PETER vs STATE OF GOA, DAMAN AND DIU

The Supreme Court dismissed the special leave petition against a death sentence for murder under Section 302 IPC, affirming that the discretion to choose between capital punishment and life imprisonment under Section 354(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 is limited. The Court held that if the crime involved aggravating circumstances and a depraved state of mind, the death penalty is warranted. It clarified that Section 377 of the 1898 Code applies only when the confirmation of the death sentence is by a bench of two or more judges, and that the Judicial Commissioner’s Court had jurisdiction to confirm the sentence despite being a single judge court.