According to the Criminal Law of Republic of Moldova, the individualization of the punishment which has to be applied to the guilty person is aimed to fulfil the purpose of criminal punishment, that is: to restore social equity, to rehabilitate the convict, and to prevent the commission of new crimes by convicts (art.61 CC of RM). The general criteria of the punishment’s individualization set the rules which the court shall take into consideration while determining the punishment. One of these rules is to apply an equitable punishment within the limits set by the Special Part of the Criminal Code. Considering the case of exceptional cir- cumstances or other circumstances that essentially diminish the social danger of the act or guilty person, the punishment in compliance with the provisions of the Special Part of the Criminal Code (the category and the term of punishment) can be too severe and cannot correspond to requirements for an equitable punishment. In this case the court may apply either a punishment less than the minimum limit set by crimi- nal law for the respective crime or a milder form of punishment of a different category, or it may decide not to apply the mandatory complementary punishment. In my opinion, this law provision is a deviation, derogation from the general criteria of the punishment’s individualization. It is derogation from the rule that a punishment, within the limits set by the Special Part of the Criminal Code, is applied to a person found guilty of the commission of a crime and it is set in those cases when the most minimum punishment seems to be too severe and non-equitable. Thus, the provision of art.79 CC fulfils the requirements of the general criteria of the punishment’s individualization regarding the equitable punishment. As a result of the study, I came to the conclusion that the application of the punishment according to the rules set in art.79 (1) CC is an exception to the general rule provided in art.75 (1) CC. This is, one of the ways of applying the punishment provided in art.79 (1) CC of RM is an exception. The circumstances in which the punishment is applied in this way are not exceptional. Otherwise said, this is not the category of circumstance that is exceptional, but the way of applying the punishment, in accordance with the rules and general criteria set in art.75 CC.