that normal rule is that the offence of murder shall be punished with sentence of life imprisonment and the court can depart from that rule and impose the sentence of death only if there are special reasons for doing so and reasons are required to be recorded in 10 2023 SCC Online SC 1473 11 (1980) 2SCC 684 17writing before imposing the death sentence. It has been further held that the guidelines indicated in Bachan Singh’s case will have to be applied to the facts of each individual case where the question of imposing of death sentence arises and after noticing the propositions emerging from the Bachan Singh’s case, it has been held that if it shocks the collective conscious of the society and fall in the category of ‘rarest of rare cases’, the imposition of death penalty may be warranted. As to whether the facts and circumstances of the case, warrants imposition of death penalty or not cannot be applied in any straight jacket formula and it would be on facts and circumstances