Is the sentence of death the only adequate sentence where an intermediate sentence would meet the ends of justice?

Constitution of India — Article 21 — Indian Penal Code, 1860 — s.302 — s.376AB — Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 — ss.5-6 — Sentencing — Rarest of rare — Intermediate sentence — Indian Penal Code, 1860 — s.302 — Bachan Singh — Crime test and criminal test — Held: A sentencing court cannot assess the criminal test at zero while considering whether to impose the sentence of death; Bachan Singh commands that the crime be weighed together with the criminal, and a court assigning zero weight to the criminal disobeys that command. (¶182) Indian Penal Code, 1860 — s.302 — Burden on the State — Reformation — Held further: The State must establish that a convict is beyond reformation before the sentence of death can be sustained; where the State leads no such evidence, the possibility of reformation cannot be said to be excluded, and the alternative of life imprisonment is not foreclosed. (¶188, 190) Indian Penal Code, 1860 — s.302 — Union of India v. V. Sriharan — Intermediate sentence — Held further: The sentence of death is not the only adequate sentence where an intermediate sentence of imprisonment for the remainder of the convict's natural life without remission would meet the ends of justice. Death sentence commuted; conviction affirmed. (¶197, 203) Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 — s.391 — s.367 — Cure of defective cross-examination — Held further: A defect in the cross-examination of a principal witness by counsel with no opportunity to prepare can be cured by this Court directing further cross-examination, rather than requiring a fresh trial. (¶24, 26)