AND M.Y. EQBAL, JJ.]

‘S’, and his wife and minor son – Accused-appellant allegedly assaulted the deceased persons with a knife after having invited them at his house for lunch – Motive of appellant in brutally assaulting ‘S ’ with a knife allegedly stemmed from his abhorrence for his wife’s relationship with ‘S ’ – Conviction of appellant u/s.302 IPC – Justification – Held: Justified – Evidence of the two eye-witnesses, PW-5 and PW-7, found credible and trustworthy – Defense version that the incident occurred when ‘S ’ attempted to rape the wife of appellant and on her resistance threatened to assault her with the knife, apparently unnatural and improbable – Plea of right to private defence and non-orchestrated nature of the offence vitiated by evidence of PW-9 – Prosecution case well supported and established by the evidence of PWs 5, 7, 9 and 18 coupled with the evidence of doctors, the post-mortem report and medical evidence – No room for any doubt as to the guilt of the appellant. Sentence / Sentencing – Murder case – Three victims – Conviction of accused-appellant u/s.302 IPC – Death sentence awarded to appellant – Challenge to – Held: Awarding of life sentence is the rule, death is an exception – Application of “the rarest of the rare case ” principle is dependent upon and differs from case to case – Reasonable proportion has to be maintained between brutality of the crime A