India, Oct. 9 -- The judiciary's forgiving nature in commutation of death sentences has led to an increase in crime in the country and somewhere this practice of sparing mercy to heinous offenders has to end, the Supreme Court remarked on Thursday, as it reserved its order in a remission plea.

A bench of justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu was hearing a petition filed by a life term-serving couple seeking premature release in the 2001 gruesome murder of eight members of a former Haryana legislator's family in Hisar district.

"It is because of the Supreme Court's forgiving nature India is facing this problem. We just forgive, forgive, forgive, one must draw a line somewhere," justice Datta remarked.

The judge recalled an incident whe...