Calcutta High Court Commutes Death Sentence Of Murder Convict To Life Imprisonment With No Remission For 40 Years

The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday commuted the death sentence awarded to a convict by the trial court in a double murder case to life imprisonment without remission for a period of 40 years from the date of commission of offence.

The division bench of Justice Debangsu Basak and Justice Md. Shabbar Rashidi observed:

“In the facts of the present case, the state has neither at the stage of the trial nor before us in appeal provided any materials to show that the convict was beyond reformation and rehabilitation. Failure of the state to provide such information has been held in 2011 volume 13 Supreme Court Cases 706 (Rajesh Kumar versus State) to be a mitigating circumstance.”

The two accused were tried and found guilty by the trial court of murdering a 1 and a half-year-old child and the mother of the child in 2008.

The trial court in February 2020 convicted and sentenced Nandita Saha to imprisonment for life and said that Satya Saha “be hanged by the neck till he was dead” for the offences punishable under Section 302 (Punishment for Murder), Section 201 (Causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) and Section 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of IPC.

In the death sentence reference, the high court noted that the trial court had taken into account the brutality of the crime, number of persons murdered, the murder of 1 year old child and an undefended female and the helplessness of the victims to arrive at the finding that capital punishment was the appropriate sentence for Satya Saha

The court observed that trial judge however failed to embark upon the exercise to find out as to whether he was beyond reformation or not and did not arrive at the conclusion that sentence of life imprisonment was foreclosed for him.

“Applying such a ratio of Rajesh Kumar (supra) and in view of the failure of the state in providing material that convict No. 2 is beyond rehabilitation and reformation, we consider such failure of the state as a mitigating circumstance in favour of convict No. 2,” said the court.

The court further held that the award of life imprisonment as a sentence for the crime committed by convict No. 2 was not foreclosed.

It further relied upon the judgment of the Supreme Court in Union of India v. Sriharan @ Murugan (2016) 7 SCC 1 in which it was held that a Constitutional Court can award a sentence of life imprisonment without remission for a specified period.

“In the facts of the present case, a child of 1½ year had been murdered by the convict. Along with the child, the mother of the child had also been murdered. Both the mother and the child had been in a helpless position vis-a-vis the convicts. They had murdered the two victims for gains relating to property. The learned Trial Judge had noted such aspect while awarding death penalty to the convict No. 2,” noted the court.

However, it added that justice will be sub served by commuting the death penalty of Satya Saha to a life sentence without remission for a period of 40 years from the date of the commission of the offence.

 Case Title: The State of West Bengal v. Nandita Saha @ Mou & Anr.

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Cal) 102

Coram: Justice Debangsu Basak and Justice Md. Shabbar Rashidi

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