Overview

• Bombay High Court on July 23 set aside the 2022 death sentence in a Pune toddler rape-murder case and ordered the special court to rehear arguments after noting that DNA experts were never examined
• Calcutta High Court commuted the death sentences of two men in the November 2021 Jhargram gang rape and murder of a five-year-old to life terms without remission for 60 years, citing reports on their reformation potential
• In a separate Paschim Medinipur case, the Calcutta bench acquitted two co-accused and reduced Bikash Murmu’s death sentence to life imprisonment for 40 years after evaluating socio-economic and psychological reports
• Judges across both high courts underscored the necessity of full evidentiary hearings, expert testimony and strict adherence to the “rarest of rare” doctrine before confirming capital punishment
• These decisions reinforce a judicial trend toward balancing the gravity of heinous child sexual offences with defendants’ rights to due process and prospects for rehabilitation