Court caseAIR 1973 SC 947

Jagmohan Singh was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. In the Supreme Court he challenged the constitutional validity of the death penalty itself: that it extinguished all the freedoms guaranteed by Article 19, that the unguided choice between death and life imprisonment left to the judge was arbitrary and violated Article 14, and that the deprivation of life without a legislative standard offended Article 21. This was the first direct constitutional challenge to capital punishment in India.

The Constitution Bench unanimously upheld the death penalty. Palekar J held that the Constitution itself contemplates the death sentence (Articles 72, 134 and 161), that deprivation of life according to procedure established by law is permitted by Article 21, and that the judicial discretion to choose between death and life, exercised on the facts of each case in a judicial manner with the right of appeal, is not arbitrary; it is impossible to lay down standards in advance for the infinite variety of cases. The sentence was confirmed.