Court caseAIR 1983 SC 473

Section 303 IPC provided that whoever, being under sentence of imprisonment for life, commits murder shall be punished with death; the court had no discretion. Mithu Singh, a life convict, was sentenced to death under this section. The constitutional validity of s. 303 was challenged before a Constitution Bench on the ground that a mandatory death sentence, without any hearing on sentence, violated Articles 14 and 21.

The Court struck down s. 303 IPC. Chandrachud CJ held that the section was based on the irrational assumption that every life convict who commits murder is beyond reform, treated unequals alike (a murder by a life convict may be far less culpable than one by a free person) and denied the sentencing hearing and the requirement of special reasons that Bachan Singh had made part of the procedure established by law. A law that compels the court to impose death without regard to the circumstances is arbitrary and violates Articles 14 and 21. All murders are thereafter punishable only under s. 302, with a choice between death and life imprisonment.