Reasons for a Sentence

In one line

A sentence must be explained, and section 393 says when reasons are required and when special reasons are required.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: section 393 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023 requires every judgment to contain the point or points for determination, the decision and the reasons for the decision, and to specify the offence and the punishment. By sub-section (3), where the conviction is for an offence punishable with death or, in the alternative, with imprisonment for life or a term of years, the judgment shall state the reasons for the sentence awarded and, in the case of a sentence of death, the special reasons for that sentence. By sub-section (4), where the offence is punishable with imprisonment for a year or more and the court imposes less than three months, it must record its reasons. And by sub-section (5), a sentence of death shall direct that the convict be hanged by the neck till he is dead.

The four requirements, in order of importance

1. Special reasons for a death sentence: section 393(3)

This is the provision the whole of Module II interprets. It was section 354(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973, and it reversed the position under the Code of 1898, under which death was the normal sentence for murder and reasons had to be given for not imposing it.

Since 1973 the rule is the other way round, and Bachan Singh v. State of Punjab, (1980) 2 SCC 684, drew from it the highroad of legislative policy: for persons convicted of murder, life imprisonment is the rule and death sentence an exception.

And "special reasons" means exceptional reasons. Santosh Kumar Satishbhushan Bariyar v. State of Maharashtra, (2009) 6 SCC 498, quoting Bachan Singh: the expression special reasons obviously means exceptional reasons founded on the exceptionally grave circumstances of the particular case relating to the crime as well as the criminal.

2. Reasons for the sentence in any alternative-sentence case: section 393(3), first limb

Where the conviction is for an offence punishable with death or, in the alternative, with imprisonment for life or a term of years, the judgment must state the reasons for the sentence awarded, whichever sentence it is.

So the obligation to explain is not confined to a death sentence. Where a court passes life imprisonment on a murder conviction, it must say why.

3. Reasons for a very short sentence: section 393(4)

Where the conviction is for an offence punishable with imprisonment for a term of one year or more, but the court imposes a sentence of less than three months, it shall record its reasons, unless the sentence is imprisonment till the rising of the court, or unless the case was tried summarily.