Hanged Until Dead

THE STORIES & TRUTH

Midhun Kumar Allu

Vankina, Allu & Partners, Hi-Tech City, Hyderabad
Version 3.0
The Story

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Motilal Nehru
• Born 6th May 1861

• Passed Bar Examination in 1883

• Began practice at Kanpur.

• Three years later moved to

Allahabad to join practice already
established by his brother Nandlal.

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Deshbandu Chittaranjan Das
• Born 5th November 1870

• Practice from 1890-1894

• Entered Politics & then in 1909 took the

brief of Aurobindo Ghosh in Alipore
Bomb Case.

• Alipore Bomb Case : Aggrieved by Bengal

Partition, attack was planned against
Douglas Kingsford, Chief Magistrate of
Presidency Court of Alipore.

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Khudiram Bose
• Alipore Bomb Attack
(Muzaffarpur Conspiracy Case)

• Hanged at age of 18 years 8

months 11 Days.

• Hanged : 11th August 1908

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Criminal Procedure Code

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To simplify the Procedure of the Courts of Criminal Judicature.
It consolidated 237 Regulations & Acts.

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Motilal Nehru was born in the year this code came into force.

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Criminal Procedure Code, 1872 : Section 321

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……

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Medieval Time : Hanging as Punishment

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Multiple Methods of Hanging

(a) Hanging by Ribs : Illustration by William Blake

(b) Long Drop : Execution of Tom Ketchum (Black Jack) : Decapitated Body 13
Multiple Methods of Hanging

Short Drop Method of Hanging

(a) Execution of Guards & Kapos of the Stutthof Concentration Camp
(b) Execution of Henry Wirz in 1865 near U.S. Capitol 14
Constitutionality of the Death Penalty

• Jagmohan Singh v State of UP : 1973 (1) SCC 20

• Bachan Singh v. State of Punjab : 1980 (2) SCC 684 : (Majority) [

Constitutional Bench Judgment ] (4:1)

• Bachan Singh v. State of Punjab : (1982) 3 SCC 24 : (Minority - Justice

P.N. Bhagwati)

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Constitutionality of Hanging by Rope

• Deena v Union of India : (1983) 4 SCC 645

• Neither electrocution, nor lethal gas, nor shooting, nor even the
lethal injection has any distinct or demonstrable advantage over
the system of hanging, and therefore, it is impossible to conclude
with any degree of certainty that the method of hanging should be
replaced by any of these methods.

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Constitutionality of Hanging by Rope

• Rishi Malhotra v Union of India – (2017) 16 SCC 767

• Notice issued.

• What was constitutional before need not be constitutional today.

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Sources & Reference
• The Code of Criminal Procedure : W. Theobald, Esq., Barrister, Messrs
Thacker, Spink & Co., Calcutta (1861)

• Indian Code of Criminal Procedure : Fendall Currie, Esq. of Lincoln Inn, City
Magistrate of Lucknow, John Flack & Co., London (1874)

• Criminal Major Acts, 27th Edition, Asia Law House, Hyderabad

• Medieval Punishments : William Andrews, Sky Horse Publishing, USA (2013)

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Thank You

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