Section 302

As the punishment provision for the most serious form of unlawful killing defined in the previous sections, this section reflects society's judgment that murder deserves the law's harshest available penalties. Courts exercise careful discretion between the death penalty and life imprisonment, guided by constitutional principles requiring the death penalty be reserved only for the 'rarest of rare' cases. Under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, this offence continues under a renumbered section, with the same range of punishment.

The Supreme Court has held that the death penalty for murder should be imposed only in the 'rarest of rare' cases, where the alternative of life imprisonment is unquestionably foreclosed, requiring courts to weigh aggravating and mitigating circumstances relating to both the crime and the criminal before choosing between life imprisonment and death.

• Myth: Every murder conviction automatically results in the death penalty.
  Fact: Courts must choose between life imprisonment and the death penalty, and the Supreme Court has held that death should be given only in the rarest of rare cases; life imprisonment is the norm.