The Supreme Court has ruled that a sentence lesser than life term cannot be awarded to convicts for heinous offences like dowry death where the victim is killed in a brutal manner.

A bench of justices Swatanter Kumar and Ranjan Gogoi rejected the plea of a victim's husband and brother-in-law for leniency on the ground that they are young, their mother was of advancing age and the incident occurred in 1996.

The apex court upheld the life sentence imposed on the accused persons for setting ablaze the victim to death on February 17, 1996 after she failed meet their dowry demands at Roorkee in Uttarkhand.

The bench also rejected the plea of the husband that his wife died after the cooking stove burst and he had sustained injuries while trying to rescue her.

But, the bench observed that as per the details of injuries, there was not even a single burn injury found on the body of the accused.