The Supreme Court on Friday rejected the CBI's plea for death penalty to Dara Singh, convicted for burning alive Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons in January 1999, and upheld the life term awarded to him by the Orissa High Court.

A bench comprising justices P Sathasivam and BS Chauhan, while dismissing the agency's plea for death penalty, said the punishment can be imposed only in the 'rarest of rare' cases depending upon the facts and situation of each case. In the present case, the apex court said, the offence committed by the convicts, though highly condemnable, does not fall in the category of rarest of rare to warrant a death sentence.