No reason to disbelieve that this is a misnegation
New day, new linguistic fodder to chew on, and another quick note!
From an article in today’s HT:
“The SC had said that if there is no reason to disbelieve that the accused cannot be reformed or rehabilitated, a sentence of death would be erroneous.”
The moment I read ‘no reason to disbelieve’, I knew there was a disaster waiting to happen, and I wasn’t disappointed. There are a total of 4 negating elements in this text (no reason, disbelieve, cannot be, erroneous) and you will see that the meaning is virtually impossible to compute naturally.