News: The Supreme Court of India stressed the principle of just deserts and held that compensation and reducing the sentence of convicts cannot replace punishment.
About Principle of Just Deserts
- The Principle of Just Deserts is rooted in the retributive theory of punishment, which emphasises that people, as responsible agents, deserve to be punished when they break the law.
- It is a principle of punishment which argues that criminal sanctions should be proportional to the seriousness of the offence.
- It also held that the punishment given to an offender for the commission of a particular crime should also be given to a person who commits the same crime.
- The seriousness of the offence and its core components determine the level of moral outrage and the magnitude of punishment under the just deserts principle.
