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Capital punishment in India

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be
challenged and removed. (September 2010)
India retains capital punishment for a number of serious offences.[1] The Indian Supreme Court has allowed the death penalty to be carried out in only 4 instances since
1995.

Part of a series on

Capital punishment

The Supreme Court in Mithu vs State of Punjab struck down Section 303 of the Indian Penal Code, which provided for a mandatory death sentence for offenders serving a life
sentence.[2] The number of people executed in India since independence in 1947 is a matter of dispute; official government statistics claim that only 52 people had been
executed since independence. However, research by the People's Union for Civil Liberties indicates that the actual number of executions is in fact much higher, as they
located records of 1,422 executions in the decade from 1953 to 1963 alone.[3] In December 2007, India voted against a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for
a moratorium on the death penalty.[4] In November 2012, India again upheld its stance on capital punishment by voting against the UN General Assembly draft resolution
seeking to ban death penalty.[5]

Past use
Australia Austria Belgium Bhutan Brazil
Bulgaria Canada Cyprus Denmark
Ecuador France Germany Gibraltar
Hong Kong Hungary Ireland Israel Italy
Liechtenstein Macau Mexico Mongolia
Netherlands New Zealand Norway
Philippines Poland Portugal Romania
San Marino Serbia South Africa Spain
Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine
United Kingdom Uzbekistan Venezuela

[edit]

Methods still in use

Under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, no person can be deprived of his life except according to procedure established by law.

Decapitation Electrocution Firing squad

Gas chamber Hanging Lethal injection
Shooting Stoning

Indian Penal Code, 1860 [edit]

In colonial India, death was prescribed as one of the punishments in the Indian Penal Code,1860 (IPC),[2] and the same was retained after independence.
Section under
IPC
120B

Methods no longer in use

Bestiarii Blowing from a gun Boiling
Breaking wheel Burning Crucifixion
Crushing Disembowelment
Dismemberment Drowning Elephant
Falling Flaying Garrote
Hanged, drawn and quartered Immurement
Impalement Live burial Mazzatello Sawing
Scaphism Slow slicing Suffocation in ash

Nature of crime
Punishment of criminal conspiracy
Waging, or attempting to wage war, or abetting waging of war, against

121
132

the Government of India

Abetment of mutiny

Civil death
Castaway Exile / Banishment Felons
Marooning Ostracism Outlaw Petalism

If an innocent person be convicted and executed in consequence of such false

194

Current use
Note: Italics indicate countries where capital
punishment has not been used in the last ten years
or that have a moratorium in effect.

Afghanistan Bahamas Bangladesh

Belarus Botswana China Cuba Egypt
Guatemala India Indonesia Iran Iraq
Japan North Korea South Korea Lebanon
Malaysia Pakistan Russia Saudi Arabia
Singapore Somalia Sri Lanka Suriname
Syria Taiwan Tajikistan Tonga
United Arab Emirates United States
Vietnam Yemen

Contents [hide]
1 Crimes punishable by death
1.1 Indian Penal Code, 1860
1.1.1 Court proceedings
1.2 Other legislation
2 Clemency in the Indian Constitution
2.1 Power of the President
2.1.1 Constitutional power
3 Execution of death sentence
3.1 Hanging
3.2 Shooting
4 History
5 List of people Executed
6 References
7 External links

Crimes punishable by death

Issues
Debate Religion and capital punishment
Use by country Wrongful execution
Drug trafficking

evidence to procure conviction of capital offence

302, 303

Murder

305

Abetment of suicide of child or insane person

364A

Kidnapping for ransom

Related topics
Crime Death row Last meal
Penology Qi
v t e

Dacoity with murder

396

376A

If any one of five or more persons, who are conjointly committing dacoity, commits murder in so committing dacoity, every one of those persons shall be
punished
Rape/Sexual Assault An amendment in the year 2013 provided for death penalty in case he inflicts an injury upon woman during rape which causes her
death or to be in persistent vegetative state.[6]

Court proceedings [edit]

The Supreme Court of India ruled in 1983 that the death penalty should be imposed only in "the rarest of rare cases."[1] While stating that honour killings fall within the "rarest of the rare" category, Supreme Court has
recommended the death penalty be extended to those found guilty of committing "honour killings", which deserve to be a capital crime.[7] The Supreme Court also recommended death sentences to be imposed on police
officials who commit police brutality in the form of encounter killings.[8]
In an appeal filed by Vikram Singh and another person, facing the death sentence, the constitutional validity of Section 364A of the Indian Penal Code has been questioned.[9]

Other legislation [edit]

In addition to the Indian Penal Code, a series of legislation enacted by the Parliament of India have provisions for the death penalty.
Sati is an inhumane practice involving the burning or burying alive of any widow or woman along with the body of her deceased husband or any other relative or with any article, object or thing associated with the husband
or such relative. Under the Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987 Part. II, Section 4(1), if any person commits sati, whoever abets the commission of such sati, either directly or indirectly, shall be punishable with
death.[10]
The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 was enacted to prevent the commission of offences of atrocities against the members of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled
Tribes. Under Section 3(2)(i) of the Act, bearing false witness in a capital case against a member of a scheduled caste or tribe, resulting in that person's conviction and execution, carries the death penalty[11] In 1989, the
Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act was passed which applied a mandatory death penalty for a second offence of "large scale narcotics trafficking". On 16 June 2011, the Bombay High Court ruled
that Section 31A of the NDPS Act, which imposed the mandatory sentence, violated Article 21 (Right to Life) of the Constitution and that a second conviction need not be a death penalty, giving judges discretion to decide
about awarding capital punishment.[12][13]
In recent years, the death penalty has been imposed under new anti-terrorism legislation for people convicted of terrorist activities.[1] On 3 February 2013, in response to public outcry over a brutal gang rape in Delhi, the
Indian Government passed an ordinance which applied the death penalty in cases of rape that leads to death or leaves the victim in a "persistent vegetative state".[14][15] The death penalty can also be handed down to
repeat rape offenders under the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013.

Clemency in the Indian Constitution

[edit]

After the award of the death sentence by a sessions (trial) court,the sentence must be confirmed by a High Court to make it final.[2] Once confirmed, the condemned convict has the option of appealing to the Supreme
Court. If this is not possible, or if the Supreme Court turns down the appeal or refuses to hear the petition, the condemned person can submit a mercy petition to the President of India and the Governor of the State.[16]

Power of the President [edit]

The present day constitutional clemency powers of the President and Governors originate from the Government of India Act 1935 but, unlike the Governor-General, the President and Governors in independent India do
not have any prerogative clemency powers.
Constitutional power [edit]

converted by W eb2PDFConvert.com

Article 72(1) of the Constitution of India states:

The President shall have the power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any person convicted of any offence
(a) in all cases where the punishment or sentence is by a Court Martial;
(b) in all cases where the punishment or sentence is for an offence against any law relating to a matter to which the executive power of the Union extends;
(c) in all cases where the sentence is a sentence of death.

Execution of death sentence

[edit]

The execution of death sentence in India is carried out by two modes, namely hanging by the neck till death and being shot to death.

Hanging [edit]
The Code of Criminal Procedure (1898) called for the method of execution to be hanging. The same method was adopted in the Code of Criminal Procedure (1973).[17] Section 354(5) of the above procedure reads as
"When any person is sentenced to death, the sentence shall direct that he be hanged by the neck till he is dead."

Shooting [edit]
The Army Act and Air Force Act also provide for the execution of the death sentence.[18] Section 34 of the Air Force Act, 1950 empowers the court martial to impose the death sentence for the offences mentioned in
section 34(a) to (o) of The Air Force Act, 1950. Section 163 of the Act provides for the form of the sentence of death as:"In awarding a sentence of death, a court-martial shall, in its discretion, direct that the offender shall suffer death by being hanged by the neck until he be dead or shall suffer death by being shot to death".
This provides for the discretion of the Court Martial to either provide for the execution of the death sentence by hanging or by being shot to death. The Army Act, 1950, and the Navy Act, 1957 also provide for the similar
provisions as in The Air Force Act, 1950.

History

[edit]

About 26 mercy petitions are pending before the president, some of them from 1992. These include those of Khalistan Liberation Force terrorist Davinder Singh Bhullar, the cases of slain forest brigand Veerappan's four
associatesSimon, Gnanprakasham, Meesekar Madaiah and Bilvendranfor killing 21 policemen in 1993; and one Praveen Kumar for killing four members of his family in Mangalore in 1994.[19] On 27 April 1995, Auto
Shankar was hanged in Salem, Tamil Nadu.
At least 100 people in 2007, 40 in 2006, 77 in 2005, 23 in 2002, and 33 in 2001 were sentenced to death (but not executed), according to Amnesty International figures. No official statistics of those sentenced to death
have been released.
Afzal Guru was convicted of conspiracy in connection with the 2001 Indian Parliament attack and was sentenced to death. The Supreme Court of India upheld the sentence, ruling that the attack "shocked the conscience
of the society at large." Afzal was scheduled to be executed on 20 October 2006, but the sentence was stayed.[citation needed] Guru was hanged on 9 February 2013 at Delhi's Tihar Jail.[20][21]
On 3 May 2010, a Mumbai Special Court convicted Ajmal Kasab of murder, waging war on India, possessing explosives, and other charges.[22] On 6 May 2010, the same trial court sentenced him to death on four counts
and to a life sentence on five other counts. Kasab was sentenced to death for attacking Mumbai and killing 166 people on 26 November 2008 along with nine Pakistani terrorists. He was found guilty of 80 offences,
including waging war against the nation, which is punishable by the death penalty.[23] Kasab's death sentence was upheld by the Bombay High Court on 21 February 2011.[24] and by the Supreme Court on 29 August
2012.[25] His mercy plea was rejected by the president on 5 November and the same was communicated to him on 12 November. On 21 November 2012, Kasab was hanged in the Yerwada Central Jail in Pune.
On 5 March 2012, a sessions court in Chandigarh ordered the execution of Balwant Singh Rajoana, a terrorist from Babbar Khalsa, convicted for his involvement in the assassination of Punjab Chief Minister Beant
Singh.[26] The sentence was to be carried out on 31 March 2012 in Patiala Central Jail,[27] but the Centre stayed the execution on 28 March due to worldwide protests by Sikhs that the execution was unfair and amounted
to a human rights violation.[28]
On 13 March 2012, a court in Sirsa, Haryana, condemned to death the 22-year-old Nikka Singh for raping and strangling to death a 75-year-old woman on 11 February 2011.[29] "The imposition of the death sentence
was most appropriate in this case. The court has held that it was a cold-blooded murder and where rape was committed on an innocent and hapless old woman," said Neelima Shangla, the Sirsa additional district and
sessions judge.[30] "The rape and cold-blooded murder of a woman, who was of grandmothers age of the accused, falls in the rarest of the rare case." The court held that Nikka Singh was a "savage" whose "existence on
earth was a grave danger to society" as he had also attempted to rape two other village women.[31]
In June 2012, it became known that Indian president Pratibha Patil near the end of her five-year term as president commuted the death sentence of as many as 35 convicts to life, including four on the same day (2 June),
which created a storm of protest.[32] This caused further embarrassment to the government when it came to light that one of these convicts, Bandu Baburao Tidkeconvicted for the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl
had already died five years previously from HIV.[33]
As of 11 February 2013, there are 476 convicts on death row in India. States with the maximum number of prisoners on death row are Uttar Pradesh (174), Karnataka (61), Maharashtra (50) and Bihar (37).[34]

List of people Executed

[edit]

Nathuram Godse
Auto Shankar
Dhananjoy Chatterjee
Afzal Guru
Ajmal Kasab

References
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
[1]
[2]

[edit]

^ a b c Majumder, Sanjoy. "India and the death penalty ." BBC News 4 August 2005.
^ a b c VENKATESAN, V. (7 September 2012). "A case against the death penalty" . Frontline. Retrieved 30 July 2013.
^ "'Number of executions much higher than 52 .'" Times of India. 10 March 2005.
^ "General Assembly GA/10678 Sixty-second General Assembly Plenary 76th & 77th Meetings" . ANNEX VI. Retrieved 30 July 2013.
^ "General Assembly GA/11331 , Sixty-seventh General Assembly Plenary 60th Meeting" . 20 December 2012. ANNEX XIII. Retrieved 30 July 2013.
^ http://indiacode.nic.in/acts-in-pdf/132013.pdf
^ "Honour killings: India's top court calls for death penalty" . The Sydney Morning Herald. 10 May 2011.
^ "Hang cops involved in fake encounters: Supreme Court" . NDTV.com. 2011-08-08. Retrieved 2013-04-23.
^ "Is death for kidnap and ransom fair?" . The Hindu. 5 July 2013. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
^ "The Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987" . PART II , Punishment for offences relating to Sati. Retrieved 30 July 2013.
^ "The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989." . Chapter II , Section 2 (1). Retrieved 30 July 2013.
^ "Bombay high court: Second NDPS conviction need not mean death - Mumbai - DNA" . Dnaindia.com. Retrieved 2013-04-23.
^ "Bombay High Court overturns mandatory death penalty for drug offences; first in the world to do so" . Lawyers Collective. Retrieved 2013-04-23.
^ "BBC News - India president approves tough rape laws" . Bbc.co.uk. 2013-02-04. Retrieved 2013-04-23.
^ "Notorious Attack Spurs India to Approve New Rape Laws" . New York Times. 3 February 2013.
^ "Supreme Court Judgement, Devender Pal Singh Bhullar versus State of N.C.T. of Delhi" (PDF). pp. 4346.
^ "The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 Act No. 2 of 1974" (PDF). 25 January 1974. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
^ "Consultation paper on mode of execution of death sentence and incidental matters" (PDF). Law commission of India. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
^ 5 may 2009 : Centre sends final opinion to President on 27 mercy petitions
^ "After Afzal Guru's hanging, curfew, tight security in Kashmir Valley" . NDTV.com. 2013-02-09. Retrieved 2013-04-23.
^ "Parliament House attack convict Afzal Guru hanged to death at 8am - Times Of India" . Timesofindia.indiatimes.com. Retrieved 2013-04-23.
^ Irani, Delnaaz (3 May 2010). "Surviving Mumbai gunman convicted over attacks" . BBC News. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
^ "Bombay HC upholds Kasab's death sentence" .
^ "Kasab waged war against India: court" . The Hindu (Chennai, India). 22 February 2011. Retrieved 22 February 2011.
^ "Supreme court confirms death sentence for Kasab" . The Hindu (Pune, India). 29 August 2012. Retrieved 29 August 2012.
^ "Punjab govt to challenge order to hang Beanta's killer" . The Times Of India. 27 March 2012.
^ "Punjab on high alert as court orders execution of Beant Singh's killer" . The Times Of India. 27 March 2012.
^ "Beant killer wont be hanged on March 31, News - Nation" . Mumbai Mirror. Retrieved 2013-04-23.
^ "Chandigarh: Youth gets death for rape, murder of 75-year-old woman : North, News - India Today" . Indiatoday.intoday.in. 2012-03-13. Retrieved 2013-04-23.
^ "Youth gets death for rape, murder of 75-year-old" . The Times Of India. 14 March 2012.
^ http://www.hindustantimes.com/Punjab/Chandigarh/Youth-gets-death-for-rape-murder-of-75-yr-old-in-Sirsa/SP-Article1-824876.aspx
^ "President Pratibha Patil goes on mercy overdrive" . The Times Of India. 22 June 2012.
Lethal lottery: The Death Penalty in India -a study of Supreme Court judgments in death penalty cases 1950-2006 (summary report)
Lethal lottery: The Death Penalty in India -a study of Supreme Court judgments in death penalty cases 1950-2006 (complete report)

External links

[edit]

Status of Death Penalty in India

Model Prison Manual India
Lethal lottery: The Death Penalty in India

India portal

-a study of Supreme Court judgments in death penalty cases 1950-2006 from Amnesty International

Criminal justice portal

converted by W eb2PDFConvert.com

The Death Penalty in India Briefing for the EU-India Summit, 7 September 2005
India and the death penalty Sanjoy Majumder, BBC News.
Ajmal Kasab hanged and buried in Pune's Yerwada Jail

Sovereign states

[hide]

Capital punishment in Asia

v t e

Afghanistan Armenia Azerbaijan Bahrain Bangladesh Bhutan Brunei Burma (Myanmar) Cambodia China Cyprus East Timor (Timor-Leste) Egypt Georgia India Indonesia Iran Iraq Israel Japan Jordan
Kazakhstan North Korea South Korea Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Lebanon Malaysia Maldives Mongolia Nepal Oman Pakistan Philippines Qatar Russia Saudi Arabia Singapore Sri Lanka Syria Tajikistan
Thailand Turkey Turkmenistan United Arab Emirates Uzbekistan Vietnam Yemen

States with
limited recognition

Abkhazia Nagorno-Karabakh Northern Cyprus Palestine South Ossetia Taiwan

Dependencies and
other territories

British Indian Ocean Territory Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Hong Kong Macau

Categories: Capital punishment by country Law enforcement in India Death in India Human rights in India

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