Anubhav Goel, National Law University, Delhi
Introduction
Appropriate punishment to the wrong-doer/convict is an important function performed by any criminal justice system and is rightly described as ‘judgment on conviction of crime’1. Common Law is often characterized by its discretionary sentencing nature2 where judges’ personal penological ideology plays a vital role in determining the quantum and type of punishment in cases where statute provides only minima & maxima for the same.2 Thus, it rapidly grew into a trend in Indian judiciary where the quantum of punishments would drastically vary on case-by-case basis leading to confusion, uncertainty etc.3 and thus scholars started debating whether this erodes the rule of law and public-trust upon judiciary by the society.
