The supreme court has upheld the death sentence of a "hot tempered" and "dictatorial" husband who set ablaze his wife and their three children after a domestic row.

A bench of justices Markandeya Katju and C K Prasad agreed with the concurrent findings of the sessions court and the Bombay high court that the convict Ajitsingh Harnamsingh Gujral, a businessman, deserved death penalty as his offence fell under the "rarest of rare" crime category warranting the extreme punishment.

The apex court rejected the plea of defence counsel Jaspal Singh that since no motive was established and as there was no eye witness, the conviction cannot be sustained.

"From their testimony (witnesses), it is evident that the appellant was a dictatorial personality who wanted to dominate over his family and was also hot tempered. He would even beat his wife (deceased) with a leather belt.

"As to what motivated the appellant to commit this gruesome and ghastly act is impossible for us to say because the court cannot enter into the mind of a human being and find out his motive. We can only speculate," Justice Katju, writing the judgement, said.

On the night of April 10, 2003, Gujral had poured kerosene on his wife Kanwaljeet Kaur, son Amandeep Singh (20) and daughters Neetia (22) and Taniya (13)and set them ablaze after a row with Kaur.

The victims were charred to death on the spot. The couple were married for 27 years and according to the prosecution Gujral was prone to frequently lose his temper and beat his wife with a leather belt.