In a setback to opponents of capital punishment, the Supreme Court has enlarged the scope of the penalty, saying killing of more than one innocent or killing through organised crime could attract the sentence.

"A murder committed due to deep-seated mutual and personal rivalry may not call for death penalty. But an organised crime or mass murder of innocent people would call for imposition of death sentence," a bench of justice Arijit Pasayat and justice Mukundakam Sharma said.

The judges scrapped a verdict of the Allahabad High Court reducing to life term the death sentence given by a trial court to two persons for killing six members of a family in 1994.

"Undue sympathy to impose inadequate sentence would do more harm to the justice system, undermining public confidence in the efficacy of law, and society could not endure such serious threats long," the justices said. "It is, therefore, the duty of every court to award proper sentence having regard to the nature of the offence and the manner in which it was executed or committed."

Rakesh Bhatnagar/ DNA-Daily News & Analysis Source: 3D Syndication