6.10.7. Death Penalty/Capital Punishment

While global trend is in favor of abolishment of death penalty, India continues to find itself in mix of countries such as China, Iran, Pakistan, USA where it has not been completely abolished.

The proponents of death penalty hail it for its deterrent capacity. Further, there are some crimes, which are so heinous that nothing short of death penalty meets the ends of justice. In cases like terrorism, if terrorists are not executed then they continue to pose a grave threat to national security.

However following arguments are made in favor of abolishing death penalty.

♤ No sufficient data to support the deterrent logic.

♤ Study conducted in USA shows that the state abolishing death penalty had witnessed the fall in murders.

♤ The principle of revenge (eye for an eye) cannot be the basis of justice in any civilized society

♤ The purpose of punishment should be to reform rather than to punish

♤ In Bachan Singh case, the Supreme Court sought to strike a balance. It proclaimed that death penalty is an exception not a rule. It proclaimed the doctrine of “rarest of the rare”.

♤ There is also possibility of error in judgment as admitted by the SC in 2009 in “Santosh Kumar v/s State of Maharastra case”. It admitted that there are at least 13 cases in which death penalty was awarded, the doctrine of “rarest of the rare” was not applied. Out of these, 2 persons have already been executed.

♤ United Nation’s Declaration on Human Rights also expects the state to abolish torturous

punishments and death penalty.

It is argued that for heinous crimes such as rape and murder, life imprisonment can be a better option.