INTRODUCTION

Today, of all the forms of punishment, death penalty or capital punishment is perhaps the most debated
subject among the modern penologists with the expansion of the scope of human rights jurisprudence in
India.1 Capital punishment, Death Penalty, or execution is the infliction of death upon a person by
judicial process as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as
capital crimes or capital offences. The practice of capital punishment is as old as government itself.
Capital punishment or in easier terms the death penalty is applied to people who have done various
forms of bad behavior. Method of execution are crucifixion, stoning, drowning, impaling, and beheading
but in such present time execution is formed by lethal gas or injections, electrocution, shooting or
hanging.

Hanging is the suspension of a person by noose or ligature around the neck. The Oxford English
Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is “specifically to put someone to death by suspension by
neck”, though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would
remain “hanging”. Hanging has been a common method of capital punishment since medieval times,
and is the official execution method in numerous countries and regions.

Death penalty or capital punishment is not imposed for every small or big offence. It is imposed only for
grave, unpardonable, heinous crimes. So, such situations are rarest of the rare and it is the highest
punishment known to the man. It determines the life and extinction of a person. Capital punishment is
one of the travesties of the administration of criminal justice in modern times. It has been in force from
the time immemorial, from the ancient times to the modern times. The ancient law of crimes in India
provided death sentence for quite a good number of offences. The great Indian epics, viz; the
Mahabharata and the Ramayana also contain references about the offender being punished with vadha
dand (death penalty). The great ancient law giver ‘Manu’ also contended that in order to refrain people
from doing sinful murders, death penalty was necessary. During the medieval period of Mughals also
there were references of death penalty shows. Many different modes of amputating criminals to death
are known to have existed at that time and in them, the sentence of death revived in its crudest form.

In colonial India, death was prescribed as one of the punishments in the Indian Penal Code, 1860 which
listed a number of capital crimes. It remained in effect after independence in 1947. The first hanging in
independent India was that of Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte in Mahatma Gandhi assassination
1
Rehaan Bansal, Capital Punishment in India, SHARE YOUR ESSAYS (Sept. 30, 2016,11:38),
http://www.shareyouressays.com/116801/speech-on-capital-punishment-in-india.
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case on 15 November 1949. Hanging is also a common method of suicide in which a person applies a
ligature to the neck and brings about unconsciousness and then death by suspension. Under Article 21 of
the Constitution of India, no person can be deprived of his life except according to procedure established
by law. 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. Section- 354 (5) of the Code of
Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Cr. P.C.) states “When any person is sentenced to death, the sentence shall
direct that he be hanged by the neck till he is dead.” The current wave of reformation in the field of
criminal justice system, started reformative thinking, and began to argue against the capital punishment.
Different persons have reacted to capital punishment differently, and today it is the most debatable
issue.

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 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

1. The researcher tends to throw some light on the origin of hanging.

2. The researcher tends to analyze different laws related to hanging in India.

3. The researcher tends to analyze the effect of hanging in the Indian society.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The researcher has relied upon doctrinal method of research to complete the project.

SOURCES OF DATA

The researcher has used both, primary as well as the secondary sources to complete the project.

HYPOTHESIS

Death penalty should be abolished in India.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

The researcher had limited time available to him and furthermore taking into consideration that Capital
Punishment is given in rarest of the rare cases, the researcher has to rely upon the doctrinal method of
research to complete this project.

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 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Hanging originated as a method of execution in Persia (now Iran) about 2500 years ago for male
criminals only. In early times, it was considered ideal because it was the simplest method to carry out,
did not give the condemned person a particularly cruel death (by the standards of the day), made a good
public spectacle as the prisoner was above the level of the viewers and because the equipment was easy
to come by - a tree, a piece of rope and a ladder or cart, being available everywhere. In colonial India,
death was prescribed as one of the punishments in the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC),[17] which listed a
number of capital crimes. It remained in effect after independence in 1947. The first hanging in
Independent India was that of Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte in the Mahatma Gandhi assassination
case on 15 November 1949. As per Article 21 of the Constitution of India, no person can be deprived of
his life except according to procedure established by law.
Bachan Singh vs. State of Punjab (1980)
The Constitution Bench judgment of Supreme Court of India in Bachan Singh vs. State of Punjab
(1980) made it very clear that Capital punishment in India can be given only in rarest of rare cases. 2 This
judgement was in line with the previous verdicts in Jagmohan Singh vs. State of Uttar Pradesh (1973),
and then in Rajendra Prasad vs. State of Uttar Pradesh (1979). The Supreme Court of India ruled that the
death penalty should be imposed only in "the rarest of rare cases." While stating that honour killings fall
within the "rarest of the rare" category, Court has recommended the death penalty be extended to those
found of committing "honour killings", which deserve to be a capital crime. 3 The Supreme Court also
recommended death sentences to be imposed on police officials who commit police brutality in the form
of encounter killings.4
An appeal filed in 2013 by Vikram Singh and another person facing the death sentence questioned the
constitutional validity of Section 364A of the Indian Penal Code.5
Other legislation

In addition to the Indian Penal Code, a series of legislation enacted by the Parliament of India have
provisions for the death penalty.

2
Utkarsh Anand, A case against the death penalty, THE INDIAN EXPRESS, May 27, 2015, at pg. no. 02.
3
A. Vincent, Honour killings: India's top court calls for death penalty, THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, May 10,
2011.
4
C K Prasad, Hang cops involved in fake encounters : Supreme Court, NDTV, Aug. 08, 2011, at pg. no. 03.
5
J. Venkatesan, Is death for kidnap and ransom fair, THE HINDU, Jul. 05, 2013 at pg. no. 23.
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Sati is 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.
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. 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".
In recent years, the death penalty has been imposed under new anti-terrorism legislation for
people convicted of terrorist activities. 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".6 The death penalty can
also be handed down to repeat rape offenders under the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013.
In January 2014, a three-judge panel headed by Chief Justice of India commuted sentences of 15 death
row convicts, ruling that the "inordinate and inexplicable delay is a ground for commuting death penalty
to life sentence".7 Supreme Court of India ruled that delays ranging from seven to eleven years in the
disposal of mercy pleas are grounds for clemency. The same panel also passed a set of guidelines for the
execution of a death row convict, which includes a 14-day gap from the receipt of communication of the
rejection of the mercy petition to the scheduled execution date, after going through the Shatrughan
Chauhan vs. Union of India case. Subsequently, in February 2014, Supreme Court commuted death
sentence of Rajiv Gandhi's killers on the basis of 11-year delay in deciding on mercy plea. 8 It was
subsequently commuted to life imprisonment. In March 2014, Supreme Court of India commuted death
sentence of Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, convicted in a 1993 Delhi bombings case, to life imprisonment,
both on the ground of unexplained/inordinate delay of eight years in disposal of mercy petition and on
the ground of insanity/mental illness/schizophrenia.
Curative petition

6
Neha Thirani Bagri, Notorious attack spurs India to approve new rape laws, THE NEW YORK TIMES, Feb. 03, 2013, at
pg no. 8
7
Md. Akhtar, Top Indian court commutes 15 death sentences due to delays, THE DAWN, Jan. 21, 2014.
8
Nikita Doval, The case of sisters on death row, liveMINT, Sept. 02, 2014, 11:37.
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The concept of Curative petition was evolved by the Supreme Court of India in the matter of Rupa
Ashok Hurra vs. Ashok Hurra and Anr. (2002) where the question was whether an aggrieved person is
entitled to any relief against the final judgement/order, of the Supreme Court, after dismissal of a review
petition.9 The Supreme Court in the said case held that to prevent abuse of its process and to cure gross
miscarriage of justice, it may reconsider its judgements in exercise of its inherent powers.10

9
Utkarsh Anand, Explained- 1993 Mumbai serial Blast: Curative petition, THE INDIAN EXPRESS, July 29, 2015 6:16.
10
Satya Prakash, The Curious case of a curative petition, Hindustan Times,  Jul 30, 2015 07:39.
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 METHODS OF JUDICIAL HANGING

There are four ways of performing a judicial hanging: suspension hanging, the short drop, the standard
drop, and the long drop. A mechanized form of hanging, the upright jerker, was also experimented with
in the 18th century, with a variant of it used today in Iran.

(i) Suspension.

Suspension, like the short drop, causes death by using the weight of the body to tighten the noose around
the trachea and neck structure. Prisoners are reported to have little or no struggle before they go limp
because their jugular vein and carotid arteries are blocked and blood flow to the brain is reduced. The
person slowly dies of strangulation, which typically takes between ten and twenty minutes, resulting in a
considerably more elongated and painful death as compared to the standard or long drop hanging. "If the
airway is constricted, and full suspension achieved (feet fully off the floor), this method, at least
initially, is likely to be very painful, as the person struggles for air against the compression of the noose
and against the weight of their own body, being supported entirely by the neck and jaw." 11

(ii) Short drop.

The short drop is performed by placing the condemned prisoner on the back of a cart, horse, or other
vehicle, with the noose around the neck. The object is then moved away, leaving the person dangling
from the rope. A ladder was also commonly used with the condemned being forced to ascend, after
which the noose was tied and the ladder pulled away or turned, leaving the condemned hanging.
Another method involves using a stool, which the condemned is required to stand on, being kicked
away. The guards at the Stutth of concentration camp who were sentenced to death were executed by
short-drop hanging; they were placed in the noose while standing or sitting on a truck, and the trucks
were driven away.

As with suspension hanging, the condemned prisoner slowly dies of strangulation, which typically takes
between ten and twenty minutes, resulting in a considerably more prolonged and painful death as
compared to the standard or long drop hanging, which is intended to kill by using the shock of the drop
to fracture the spinal column at the neck. Before 1850, the short drop was the standard method for
hanging, and is still common in suicides and extrajudicial hangings (such as lynchings and summary

11
Hanging, WIKIPEDIA (Sept. 28, 2017), https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanging.

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executions) which do not benefit from the specialised equipment and drop-length calculation tables used
by the newer methods.12

(iii) Pole method.

A short drop variant is the Austro-Hungarian "pole" method, called Würgegalgen (literally: strangling

gallows), in which the following steps take place:
~ The condemned is made to stand before a specialized vertical pole or pillar, approximately 10 feet
3.0 m) in height.

~ A rope is attached around the condemned's feet and routed through a pulley at the base of the pole.

~ The condemned is hoisted to the top of pole by means of a sling running across the chest and under the
armpits.

~ A narrow diameter noose is looped around the prisoner's neck, then secured to a hook mounted at the
top of the pole.

~ The chest sling is released, and the prisoner is rapidly jerked downward by the assistant executioners
via the foot rope.

~ The executioner stands on a stepped platform approximately 4 feet (1.2 m) high beside the
condemned, and guides the head downward with his hand simultaneous to the efforts of his assistants.

This method was later also adopted by the successor states, most notably by Czechoslovakia; where the
"pole" method was used as the single type of execution from 1918 until the abolition of the capital
punishment in 1990. Nazi war criminal Karl Hermann Frank, executed in 1946 in Prague, was among
approximately 1000 condemned people executed in this manner in Czechoslovakia.13

(iv) Standard drop.

The standard drop, which arrived as calculated in English units, involves a drop of between 4 and 6 feet
(1.2 and 1.8 m) and came into use from 1866, when the scientific details were published by an Irish
doctor, Samuel Haughton. Its use rapidly spread to English-speaking countries and those where judicial
systems had an English origin. It was considered a humane improvement on the short drop because it
was intended to be enough to break the person's neck, causing immediate paralysis and immobilisation

12
Hanging, WIKIPEDIA (Sept. 28, 2017), https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanging.
13
Id.
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(and probable immediate unconsciousness). This method was used to execute condemned Nazis under
United States jurisdiction after the Nuremberg Trials including Joachim von Ribbentrop and Ernst
Kaltenbrunner. In the execution of Ribbentrop, historian Giles MacDonogh records that: "The hangman
botched the execution and the rope throttled the former foreign minister for twenty minutes before he
expired." A Life magazine report on the execution merely says: "The trap fell open and with a sound
midway between a rumble and a crash, Ribbentrop disappeared. The rope quivered for a time, then
stood tautly straight."14

(v) Long drop

This process, also known as the measured drop, was introduced to Britain in 1872 by William
Marwood as a scientific advance on the standard drop. Instead of everyone falling the same standard
distance, the person's height and weight were used to determine how much slack would be provided in
the rope so that the distance dropped would be enough to ensure that the neck was broken, but not so
much that the person was decapitated. The careful placement of the eye or knot of the noose (so that the
head was jerked back as the rope tightened) contributed to breaking the neck. Prior to 1892, the drop
was between four and ten feet (about one to three metres), depending on the weight of the body, and was
calculated to deliver a force of 1,260 lbf (5,600 newtons or 572 kgf), which fractured the neck at either
the 2nd and 3rd or 4th and 5th cervical vertebrae. This force resulted in some decapitations, such as the
infamous case of Black Jack Ketchum in New Mexico Territory in 1901, owing to a significant weight
gain while in custody not having been factored into the drop calculations. Between 1892 and 1913, the
length of the drop was shortened to avoid decapitation. After 1913, other factors were also taken into
account, and the force delivered was reduced to about 1,000 lbf (4,400 N or 450 kgf). The decapitation
of Eva Dugan during a botched hanging in 1930 led the state of Arizona to switch to the gas chamber as
its primary execution method, on the grounds that it was believed more humane. One of the more recent
decapitations as a result of the long drop occurred when Barzan Ibrahim al- Tikriti was hanged in Iraq in
2007.15 Accidental decapitation also occurred during the 1962 hanging of Arthur Lucas, one of the last
two people to be put to death in Canada.16
Nazis executed under British jurisdiction, including Josef Kramer, Fritz Klein, Irma Grese and Elisabeth
Volkenrath, were hanged by Albert Pierrepoint using the variable drop method devised by Marwood.
The record speed for a British long drop hanging was 7 seconds from the executioner entering the cell to
14
Hanging, WIKIPEDIA (Sept. 28, 2017), https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanging.
15
William George, Saddam Hussein’s top aids hanged, BBC News, Jan. 15, 2007, at pg. no. 5.
16
 Toronto Star, The end of the rope: The story of Canada's last executions, December 10, 2012
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the drop. Speed was considered to be important in the British system as it reduced the victims' mental
distress.

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 MEDICAL EFFECTS OF HANGING

A hanging may induce one or more of the following medical conditions, some leading to death:

~ Closure of carotid arteries causing cerebral hypoxia.

~ Closure of the jugular veins
~ Induction of carotid sinus reflex death, which reduces heartbeat when the pressure in the carotid
arteries is high, causing cardiac arrest
~ Breaking of the neck (cervical fracture) causing traumatic spinal cord injury or even decapitation
Closure of the airway.

The cause of death in hanging depends on the conditions related to the event. When the body is released
from a relatively high position, the major cause of death is severe trauma to the upper cervical spine.
The injuries produced are highly variable. One study showed that only a small minority of a series of
judicial hangings produced fractures to the cervical spine (6 out of 34 cases studied), with half of these
fractures (3 out of 34) being the classic "hangman's fracture" (bilateral fractures of the pars inter
articularis of the C2 vertebra). The location of the knot of the hanging rope is a major factor in
determining the mechanics of cervical spine injury, with a sub mental knot (hangman's knot under the
chin) being the only location capable of producing the sudden, straightforward hyperextension injury
that causes the classic "hangman's fracture".
According to Historical and biomechanical aspects of hangman's fracture, the phrase in the usual
execution order, "hanged by the neck until dead," was necessary. By the late 19th century that
methodical study enabled authorities to routinely employ hanging in ways that would predictably kill the
victim quickly.
There is evidence suggesting that there might be superior alternatives if there were sufficient interest to
support research into such matters. Consider in particular an event recounted in the biography of Albert
Pierrepoint. Events followed a most unconventional sequence during the hanging of a particularly
powerful and uncooperative German spy during World War II. Pierrepoint relates: “Just as I was
crossing to the lever, he jumped with bound feet. The drop opened, and he plunged down, and I saw
with horror that the noose was slipping. It would have come right over his head had it not caught
roughly at a point halfway up the hood – it had in fact been stopped on his upper lip by the projection of
his nose – and the body jerked down, then became absolutely still apart from the swinging of the rope. I
went down into the pit with the prison medical officer. He examined the body and said to me: "A clean
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death. Instantaneous." He sounded surprised, and I did not blame him. I was surprised myself, and very
relieved. On my next visit to Wandsworth the governor told me that the severance of the spinal cord had
been perfect.”
Not surprisingly in retrospect, it appears that such unconventional application of forces might be
particularly efficient. There is at least some evidence that some of the countries with particularly active
programmes of judicial execution may have given the question of the design of efficient and reliable
nooses practical attention. For example, photographs of nooses in a South African execution chamber
opened to the public after abolition of the death penalty showed double nooses. Presumably the upper
noose held the lower one in place to ensure a perfect hangman's fracture.
The side, or sub aural knot, has been shown to produce other, more complex injuries, with one
thoroughly studied case producing only ligamentous injuries to the cervical spine and bilateral vertebral
artery disruptions, but no major vertebral fractures or crush injuries to the spinal cord. Death from a
"hangman's fracture" occurs mainly when the applied force is severe enough to also cause a severe sub
luxation of the C2 and C3 vertebra that crushes the spinal cord and/or disrupts the vertebral arteries.
Hangman's fractures from other hyperextension injuries (the most common being unrestrained motor
vehicle accidents and falls or diving injuries where the face or chin suddenly strike an immovable
object) are frequently survivable if the applied force does not cause a severe sub luxation of C2 on C3.
Another process that has been suggested is carotid sinus reflex death. By this theory, the mechanical
stimulation of the carotid sinus in the neck brings on terminal cardiac arrest.
In the absence of fracture and dislocation, occlusion of blood vessels becomes the major cause of death,
rather than asphyxiation. Obstruction of venous drainage of the brain via occlusion of the internal
jugular veins leads to cerebral oedema and then cerebral ischemia. The face will typically become
engorged and cyanotic (turned blue through lack of oxygen). There will be the classic sign of
strangulation, petechiae, little blood marks on the face and in the eyes from burst blood capillaries. The
tongue may protrude.
Compromise of the cerebral blood flow may occur by obstruction of the carotid arteries, even though
their obstruction requires far more force than the obstruction of jugular veins, since they are seated
deeper and they contain blood in much higher pressure compared to the jugular veins. Where death has
occurred through carotid artery obstruction or cervical fracture, the face will typically be pale in colour
and not show petechiae. Many reports and pictures exist of actual short-drop hangings that seem to show
that the person died quickly, while others indicate a slow and agonising death by strangulation.

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When cerebral circulation is severely compromised by any mechanism, arterial or venous, death occurs
over four or more minutes from cerebral hypoxia, although the heart may continue to beat for some
period after the brain can no longer be resuscitated. The time of death in such cases is a matter of
convention. In judicial hangings, death is pronounced at cardiac arrest, which may occur at times from
several minutes up to 15 minutes or longer after hanging. During suspension, once the prisoner has
lapsed into unconsciousness, rippling movements of the body and limbs may occur for some time which
are usually attributed to nervous and muscular reflexes. In Britain, it was normal to leave the body
suspended for an hour to ensure death.

After death, the body typically shows marks of suspension: bruising and rope marks on the neck.
Sphincters will relax spontaneously and urine and faeces will be evacuated. Forensic experts may often
be able to tell if hanging is suicide or homicide, as each leaves a distinctive ligature mark. One of the
hints they use is the hyoid bone. If broken, it often means the person has been murdered by
manual choking.

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 DIFFERENT STATUES DEALING WITH DEATH PENALTY

Section 121 :

Waging, or attempting to wage war, or abetting waging of war, against the Government of India.—
Whoever, wages war against the Government of India, or attempts to wage such war, or abets the
waging of such war, shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life and shall also be liable to
fine. Illustration : A joins an insurrection against the Government of India. A has committed the offence
defined in this section. 

Section 132 :

Abetment of mutiny, if mutiny is committed in consequence thereof.—Whoever abets the committing of

mutiny by an officer, soldier, sailor or airman in the Army, Navy or Air Force of the Government of
India, shall, if mutiny be committed in consequence of that abetment, be punished with death or with
imprisonment for life, or imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years,
and shall also be liable to fine.

Section 194 :

Giving or fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction of capital offence.—Whoever
gives or fabricates false evidence, intending thereby to cause, or knowing it to be likely that he will
thereby cause, any person to be convicted of an offence which is capital by the law for the time being in
force in India shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with rigorous imprisonment for a term
which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine; if innocent person be thereby convicted
and executed.—and if an innocent person be convicted and executed in consequence of such false
evidence, the person who gives such false evidence shall be punished either with death or the
punishment hereinbefore described.

Section 302 :

Punishment for murder.—Whoever commits murder shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for
life, and shall also be liable to fine.

Section 303 :

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Punishment for murder by life-convict.—Whoever, being under sentence of imprisonment for life,
commits murder, shall be punished with death.

Section 305 :

Abetment of suicide of child or insane person.—If any person under eighteen years of age, any insane
person, any delirious person, any idiot, or any person in a state of intoxication, commits suicide,
whoever abets the commission of such suicide, shall be punished with death or 1[imprisonment for life],
or imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.

Section 364A :

Kidnapping for ransom, etc.—Whoever kidnaps or abducts any person or keeps a person in detention
after such kidnapping or abduction and threatens to cause death or hurt to such person, or by his conduct
gives rise to a reasonable apprehension that such person may be put to death or hurt, or causes hurt or
death to such person in order to compel the Government or any foreign State or international inter-
governmental organisation or any other person to do or abstain from doing any act or to pay a ransom,
shall be punishable with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine.

Section 396 :

Dacoity with murder.—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 with death, or
imprisonment for life, or rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also
be liable to fine.

Section 376A :

Whoever, commits an offence punishable under sub-section (l) or sub- section (2) of section 376 and in
the course of such commission inflicts an injury which causes the death of the woman or causes the
woman to be in a persistent vegetative state, shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term
which shall not be less than twenty years, but which may extend to imprisonment for life, which shall
mean imprisonment for the remainder of that person's natural life, or with death.

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 CLEMENCY IN THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION

After the award of the death sentence by a sessions court, the sentence must be confirmed by a High
Court to make it final. 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.
Power of the President
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

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.17

17
INDIA CONST. art. 72, cl. 1.
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 SOME CASES RELATED TO DEATH SENTECE

Some cases of execution :

Dhananjoy Chatterjee :

Date of execution : August 14, 2004 (Alipore Central Jail, Kolkata)

Dhananjoy Chaterjee was accused of raping and then murdering a 14 year old girl, Hetal Parekh.
Dhananjoy was born in a village 200 kilometres from the main Kolkata city. He left his village to work
as a security guard. The victim lived in the same apartment that Dhananjoy was guarding. According to
the official verdit, it was proved that he raped the girl and then choked her to death. The judiciary
declared the crime as “rarest of rare” because the guard was responsible for the protection of the society
and the people living in it. The accused was scheduled to hang on June 25, 2004 but his family filed a
mercy plea, which was rejected by the then President of India, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam. He was finally
hanged on his 39th birthday in Alipore Central Jail in Kolkata.18

Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab:

Date of execution: November 21, 2012 (Yerwada Jail, Pune)

Ajmal Kasab was a part of the group that was responsible for the infamous 26/11 attacks in Mumbai.
This case was closely followed by the media of our country which was probable the reason why the case
was expedited. An 11,000 page charge sheet was filed against Kasab which made a strong case against
him. He kept changing his statement from time to time and moved up to the Supreme Court pleading for
mercy. President Pranab Mukherjee upheld the judgement of capital punishment on the November 5,
2012 and he was hanged to death on November 21, 2012.19

Afzal Guru:

Date of execution: February 9, 2013 (Tihar Jail, Delhi)

Afzal Guru was accused of being the master mind behind the attacks on the parliament on December 13,
2001. Five armed terrorists attacked the Indian Parliament which led to the death of 8 security personnel
and a gardener. A media person was also shot amidst the attack and succumbed to the injuries later. The

18
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Id.

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case was handed to a special cell of Delhi Police, which was able to track and arrest Afzal by December
15, 2001. He pleaded guilty in front of the media but took back his statement later claiming that he did it
due to the pressure induced by the police. A special court was formed under the Prevention of Terrorism
Act which finally sentenced him to death on December 18, 2002. Due to various pleads and protests the
case went on till February 6, 2013, when his plea was rejected by the President Pranab Mukherjee. His
execution was a carried out as a secret mission on February 9, 2013.20

Yakub Memon:

Date of execution: July 30, 2015 (Central Jail, Nagpur)

Yakub Memon was accused of taking part in sponsoring the 13 blasts that rocked Mumbai in 1993. A
charted accountant by profession, it was claimed that he sponsored the bomb blasts that were
masterminded by his brother Tiger Memon and underworld mafia Dawood Ibrahim. The blasts claimed
the lives of 257 people. Yakub pleaded repeatedly before the apex court claiming that his case was not
dealt with in the correct manner. Two subsequent mercy appeals were rejected which ended in an
unprecedented all-night court hearing. The court rejected the final appeal at 5a.m. in the morning.
Yakub was woken up at 4:00 a.m. and was allowed to take a warm water bath. He read the Quran and
offered his Namaz before being hanged before 7am and was declared dead at 7:01 am.21

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Id.
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 CONCLUSION

Some penologists, criminologists, jurists, social workers, reformists say that crime is a disease, and the
germs of such disease are within the society, and firth those germs should be eradicated and society
gives birth to crime and criminal and for faults of society, the law should not blame the criminals, they
stress on prevention and reformation principles according to them every criminal should be transformed
into a law abiding citizen. Capital punishment is the most cruel, inhuman and an example of barbarism,
and it is ridiculous to say that by killing a criminal will less pains and suffering is humanitarian thing.
By imposing capital punishment, neither the public not criminals fear to commit the crimes. Moreover,
it is true that more the deterrence increase so the crime rate. For example, after committing the crime
because of the fear of prosecution and then of death sentence recidivist also destroy each and every
evidence and every person who are witnesses of their criminal act and so there is a danger to society.
Gandhi was the foremost proposer to abolish capital punishment and preached us “Ahimsa”. Gandhi
pleaded that “Hate sin, but not the sinner” and according to him, every criminal should be transformed
with the efforts of society. The famous writer of epic ‘Ramayana’ Valmiki was a notorious criminal in
his past and became a great person by the preaching of God Narada, such examples in our India show
that any criminal can turn into a good citizen by reformative means and so if such criminals or weak
minded persons should be treated psychologically under the supervision of the efficient professionals,
doctors, etc. and with good education, training in any technical profession there is possibility of
improvement in them. Instead of giving them capital punishment, it is duty of the society to help them in
such situation because the germs of the crime disease are within the society. Many a times, people aruge
that it happens that the rich, political and influential people can easily escape from the hands of
prosecution by using their influence, power and money, in the corrupt administrative, social atmosphere
in India. Rich and higher class people have no fear of punishment and after committing heinous crimes
they easily escape because they know the loopholes of the law, courts and the police and can escape by
spending money. But there are several incidents in the world legal history that innocents were put to
capital punishment. There may be judicial errors in imposing capital punishment. There are chances,
where grave injustice may be caused to innocent and poor persons alleged as criminals by the criminal
justice system. And once the person is removed from the world permanently by capital punishment,
there are no chances to get him back. It is ridiculous opinion that capital punishment can save the public
money, which are spent on convict for imprisonment for life and so put the convict to capital
punishment. Rather the convict for imprisonment for life does labour in prison and earns sweat money
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for the state. These are the few humanitarian grounds to support the contention of abolition of capital
punishment.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Links:-

1. http://indiatoday.intoday.in/education/story/indias-history-of-capital-punishment-in-the-last-decade/1/455129.html

2. http://indianexpress.com/

3. http://www.hindustantimes.com/india/the-curious-case-of-a-curative-petition/story-obpyeDrE84KTJIgzSw8CML.html

4. http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/a-hanging/article2412675.ece

5. http://www.deathpenaltyindia.com/sections/

6. http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/a-hanging/article2412675.ece

7. http://www.achrweb.org/reports/india/NoDeterrence.pdf

8. http://www.hindustantimes.com/static/deaths-door/

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