ISSUE:
Whether the enhancement of accused’s sentence from life imprisonment to the death penalty by the Court, without adhering to the mandatory hearing requirement under Section 235(2) of the CrPC, is legally valid?
RULE:
Breach of the necessary requirement of S. 235(2) CrPC can vitiate the sentence.
Section 235(2) is not confined merely to hearing oral submissions, but also provides an opportunity for the prosecution and the accused to place before the court, facts and other relevant materials relating to the question of sentence and if they are contested, then to produce evidence to establish the same.
Asking the accused for his stance on the question of sentence is not enough to satisfy S. 235(2) CrPC, the onus is on the judge to make a genuine effort to extract all the information from the accused related to the question of sentence.