Direction: Read the passage and answer the question. “Awarding of life imprisonment would be a rule, while, ‘death’ would be the exception. The term ‘rarest of the rare’ case which is the consistent…

Direction: Read the passage and answer the question.
“Awarding of life imprisonment would be a rule, while, ‘death’ would be the exception. The term ‘rarest of the rare’ case which is the consistent determinative rule declared by this court, itself suggests that it has to be an exceptional case”, said a bench comprising Justice A.K. Patnaik and Justice Swatanter Kumar in its judgment on Tuesday. Commuting the death sentence awarded to four convicts into life term the bench said, “Most of the heinous crimes under the IPC are punishable by death penalty or life imprisonment. That by itself does not suggest that in all such offences, penalty of death alone should be awarded”. The law contemplates recording of special reasons and, therefore, the expression ‘special’ has to be given a definite meaning and connotation. The court has to consider matters like nature of the offence, how and under what circumstances it was committed, the extent of brutality with which the offence was committed, the motive for the offence.

Heinous means