Be specific

This refers to the report that the Supreme Court has commuted the death sentence of a man — who outraged the modesty of woman and murdered her — to life term on the ground that it is not the rarest of rare cases (Jan. 16).

No doubt, the judges have the power of discretion to decide each case on its merits. But the definition of the phrase “rarest of the rare” needs to be more specific so that no one walks out of death row taking advantage of its ambiguity.

A. Michael Dhanaraj,

Coimbatore

One wonders how there can be a fine distinction between the rarest of the rare and an ordinary murder — whatever the intention behind it or the mode of execution. Murder is a murder, however euphemistically described.

V. Natarajan,

Coimbatore