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Explained: Who is Shabnam, the first woman https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-the-
who could be hanged since 1947? | Explained case-of-amrohas-shabnam-the-first-woman-likely-to-
News,The Indian Express hanged-after-independence-7195194/

SC upholds death for U.P. teacher, lover - The https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/sc-upholds-death-

Hindu
Rarest of rare' — history of death penalty in
India and crimes that call for hanging
(theprint.in)
Shabnam First Women to Hanged in India |
Article 72 and 161 | Pardon Power of President
and governor - YouTube
Explained: Pardoning powers of
President/Governor – Civilsdaily
for-up-teacher-lover/article7220784.ece
https://theprint.in/theprint-essential/rarest-of-rare-history-of-
death-penalty-in-india-and-crimes-that-call-for-
hanging/383658/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci6DmldtSrI
https://www.civilsdaily.com/news/explained-pardoning-
powers-of-president-governor/

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 💡 Explained: Who is Shabnam, the first woman who could be hanged since 1947? |
Explained News,The Indian Express

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-the-case-of-amrohas-shabnam-the-first-
woman-likely-to-hanged-after-independence-7195194/

Shabnam (second from right) with her friends at her brother Anees’s wedding in 2006. “Not many
would want to admit they are friends with Shabnam,” says one of the girls in the photo. Express File
photo)
On February 18, the 12-year-old son of Shabnam, a death row convict from Uttar Pradesh’s Amroha,
appealed to President Ram Nath Kovind to “forgive” his mother. The same day, Shabman filed a
second mercy petition with the Governor of Uttar Pradesh and the President of India, both of whom
have earlier rejected her plea.

If executed, Shabnam will be the first woman in independent India to be hanged for a crime.
Only one jail in India –– the one in Mathura –– has the provisions for hanging a woman convict.
Pawan Kumar, the hangman in the December 2012 New Delhi gangrape case, has recently been
quoted as saying by media outlets that he had been to the Mathura jail to see if the execution room
was in working order.
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What Shabnam was convicted of

Shabnam along with her lover Saleem was convicted of killing seven members of her family in 2008
–– father Shaukat Ali 55, mother Hashmi 50, elder brother Anees 35, Anees’s wife Anjum 25,
younger brother Rashid 22, cousin Rabia 14, and Arsh, Anees’s 10-month-old son.

Shabnam, belonging to the Saifi Muslim community, lived in Bawankhedi, a village in Hasanpur tehsil
of Amroha in western Uttar Pradesh. A post-graduate in two subjects, English and Geography, she
worked as a shiksha mitra (government school teacher). Her family was opposed to her relationship

First woman to be Hanged in India | Recommended Articles by AcetheCLAT 2

 with Saleem, a Class VI dropout, who worked at a wood sawing unit outside their home and
belonged to the Pathan community.
According to the prosecution case, on the intervening night of April1415, Shabnam sedated six of
her family members –– everyone except the baby Arsh. Saleem then chopped their heads off with
an axe, while Shabnam held them by their hair. She throttled her 10-month-old nephew. With the
rest of her family dead, Shabnam would have been the sole heir to their house and other property.

When Shabnam and Saleem were arrested five days after the crime, they were both in their 20s,
and Shabnam was seven weeks pregnant. In December of that year, she gave birth to her son.
In 2010, an Amroha sessions court sentenced them to death, which was upheld by the Allahabad
High Court in 2013 and the Supreme Court in May 2015. Within 10 days, however, the Apex Court
stayed the death warrants.
In September 2015, then-Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik rejected Shabnam’s plea for mercy,
which she had sought on the ground of her responsibilities towards her son, Mohammad Taj. In
August 2016, then President Pranab Mukherjee rejected her mercy petition.
In January 2020, a Supreme Court bench headed by CJI SA Bobde upheld the death sentence.

What Shabnam claimed

Shabnam was the one who had raised the alarm about her family’s murder. She had initially claimed
that unknown assailants had entered her home and killed everyone.
However, during the trial, the couple turned against each other. The 2015 Supreme Court judgment
says that in her Section 313 statement, Shabnam said Saleem had entered the house with a knife
through the roof and killed all her family members while she was asleep. Saleem, on the other hand,
said he reached the house “only on the request of Shabnam” and that when he reached there, she
confessed to having killed the others.
Seven years after the crime, when her son was being sent to foster care, Shabnam had claimed she
feared for his life, as the “people who had killed her family over a property dispute could harm him
too”.

Legal options still available with Shabnam

Before she is hanged, Shabnam still has some legal remedies left with her. On February 19, the day
after she filed fresh mercy petitions with the Governor and the President, Shabnam’s lawyer,
Advocate Shreya Rastogi, said in a statement, “Shabnam has very important constitutional remedies
that remain to be exercised. These include the right to challenge the rejection of her mercy petition
before the Allahabad High Court and the Supreme Court on various grounds and also the right to file
a curative petition in the Supreme Court against the decision on the review petition.”
The curative petition can challenge the Supreme Court decision of January 2020, which upheld her
death sentence.

Also, under the law, if multiple people have been sentenced to death in the same case, they have to
be executed together. So, Shabnam and Saleem can be hanged only after both of them exhaust all
their legal recourses.

Shabnam’s son
Shabnam’s son stayed with her in jail for the first few years of his life. In 2015, he had to be sent to
foster care as according to the jail manual, women inmates can’t keep children above six years of
age with them.

First woman to be Hanged in India | Recommended Articles by AcetheCLAT 3

 Taj now lives with journalist Usman Saifi, who was Shabnam’s college junior, and his wife Suhina.
Saifi had told The Indian Express in 2015 “The Shabnam you hear of, the woman on death row, is
not the Shabnam I know. We went to the same college… She once paid my college fee when I
couldn’t, she would help me with my notes and stand up for me in college. All this, just like an elder
sister would. So when this happened, I was shocked. I told my wife that I owe a lot to Shabnam and
must do this for her.”

Other women on death row in India

According to a 2016 report on the death penalty in India by National Law University, New Delhi, 12
women are on death row in the country, and all belong to “backward classes and religious
minorities”.
Another case where the convicts’ mercy petitions has been rejected by the President is that of
Renuka Shinde and Seema Mohan Gavit, sisters convicted of kidnapping and killing several children
in Maharashtra towns between 1990 and 1996.

Charged along with their mother Anjana with the kidnapping of 13 children and the murder of 10 of
them, they were convicted by the Supreme Court in 2006 of five of those murders, besides the
kidnappings. According to the sisters’ defence counsel, the murders were committed by their
mother –– who died two years after their arrest in 1996 –– and the sisters were framed by Kiran
Shinde, Renuka’s husband, who turned approver.

The women would kidnap children to use them either as props or distractions during pickpocketing
and petty thefts. Later, they would kill them.

The sisters were convicted by a Kolhapur sessions court in June 2001. The Bombay High Court
upheld the death penalty given to them in 2004, and the Supreme Court in 2006. In 2014, then-
President Pranab Mukherjee rejected their mercy petition.

💡 Explained: Pardoning powers of President/Governor – Civilsdaily

https://www.civilsdaily.com/news/explained-pardoning-powers-of-president-governor/

The President has commuted death sentences to life imprisonment in at least 20 cases over the
past nine years, based on the recommendations received from the Ministry of Home Affairs MHA.
Pardon

A pardon is a government/executive decision to allow a person to be absolved of guilt for an

alleged crime or other legal offense, as if the act never occurred.

Why need Pardon?

Pardons can be granted when individuals are deemed to have demonstrated that they have
“paid their debt to society”, or are otherwise considered to be deserving of them.

Pardons are sometimes offered to persons who were either wrongfully convicted or who claim
that they were wrongfully convicted.

Pardons are sometimes seen as a mechanism for combating corruption, allowing a particular
authority to circumvent a flawed judicial process to free someone that is seen as wrongly
convicted.

Pardoning powers in India

First woman to be Hanged in India | Recommended Articles by AcetheCLAT 4

 Under the Constitution of India Article 72, the President of India can grant a pardon or reduce
the sentence of a convicted person, particularly in cases involving capital punishment.

A similar and parallel power vests in the governors of each state under Article 161.

I. President

 Article 72 says that 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.

 The pardoning powers of the Indian President are elucidated in Art 72 of the Indian Constitution.
There are five different types of pardoning which are mandated by law.

Pardon: means completely absolving the person of the crime and letting him go free. The
pardoned criminal will be like a normal citizen.

Commutation: means changing the type of punishment given to the guilty into a less harsh one,
for example, a death penalty commuted to a life sentence.

Reprieve: means a delay allowed in the execution of a sentence, usually a death sentence, for a
guilty person to allow him some time to apply for Presidential Pardon or some other legal remedy
to prove his innocence or successful rehabilitation.

Respite: means reducing the quantum or degree of the punishment to a criminal in view of some
special circumstances, like pregnancy, mental condition etc.

Remission: means changing the quantum of the punishment without changing its nature, for
example reducing twenty year rigorous imprisonment to ten years.

Cases as specified by art. 72

in all cases where the punishment or sentence is by a court martial;

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;

in all cases where the sentence is a sentence of death.

II. Governor

Similarly, as per article 161 Governor of a State has 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 against any law.

It must be relating to a matter to which the executive power of the state extends.

Please note that President can grant pardon to a person awarded death sentence. But a
governor of a state does not enjoy this power.

Nature of the Pardoning Power

The question is whether this power to grant pardon is absolute or this power of pardon shall be
exercised by the President on the advice of Council of Ministers.

The pardoning power of the president is not absolute. It is governed by the advice of the Council
of Ministers.

This has not been discussed by the constitution but is the practical truth.

First woman to be Hanged in India | Recommended Articles by AcetheCLAT 5

 Further, the constitution does not provide for any mechanism to question the legality of
decisions of President or governors exercising mercy jurisdiction.

But the SC in Epuru Sudhakar case has given a small window for judicial review of the pardon
powers of President and governors for the purpose of ruling out any arbitrariness.

The court has earlier held that court has retained the power of judicial review even on a matter
which has been vested by the Constitution solely in the Executive.

Some traditions

It is important to note that India has a unitary legal system and there is no separate body of
state law.

All crimes are crimes against the Union of India.

Therefore, a convention has developed that the governor’s powers are exercised for only minor
offenses.

While requests for pardons and reprieves for major offenses and offenses committed in the UTs
are deferred to the President.

💡 Shabnam First Women to Hanged in India | Article 72 and 161 | Pardon Power of
President and governor - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci6DmldtSrI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci6DmldtSrI

💡 'Rarest of rare' — history of death penalty in India and crimes that call for hanging

https://theprint.in/theprint-essential/rarest-of-rare-history-of-death-penalty-in-india-and-crimes-
that-call-for-hanging/383658/

First woman to be Hanged in India | Recommended Articles by AcetheCLAT 6

 Image for representational purpose | Pixabay
New Delhi: The four convicts in the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder case are set to be hanged
together at 5.30 am Friday, more than seven years after the gruesome incident stunned the country
and provoked street protests demanding justice.

This is the first time that four convicts will be hanged together on the same platform.
The last death sentence executed by the justice system in India was the 30 July 2015 hanging of
terrorist Yakub Memon, who was convicted in the 1993 Mumbai blasts.

Of the six men convicted in the Delhi gang rape and murder case, Ram Singh allegedly committed
suicide on 11 March 2013 in Tihar jail. Another convict, a minor at the time the crime was committed,
was released after three years at a reform home.

The remaining four — Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Akshay Kumar Singh — are
scheduled to be hanged in Tihar jail Friday.
Here is a look at the history of capital punishments in India and what are the crimes that call for
death penalty in the country.

Death penalty in India

Hanging and shooting are the two methods of death penalty in India. According to the Criminal
Procedure Code, hanging is the method of execution in the civilian court system. The Army Act,
1950, however, lists both hanging and shooting as official methods of execution in the military
court-martial system.
According to a study by National Law University in Delhi, 755 people have been hanged in
independent India until now.

Prior to the hanging of Memon in 2015, Muhammad Afzal — who was convicted of plotting the 2001
attack on Parliament — was hanged on 8 February 2013.
Mohammad Ajmal Amir Qasab — convicted in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack — was hanged on 21
November 2012, and Dhananjoy Chatterjee — charged and convicted with the murder and rape of a
14-year-old girl — was hanged in 2004.

First woman to be Hanged in India | Recommended Articles by AcetheCLAT 7

 Among the most talked about death sentences before this was that of Auto Shankar, aka Gowri
Shankar, a serial killer hanged in 1995.
Data for death penalties in India varies from one source to another. According to a 1967 law
commission report, at least 1,400 prisoners were executed in just 10 years, between 1954 and 1963.
After Dhananjoy Chatterjee’s death sentence, however, there were reports citing government data
that he was only the 55th person to be hanged since 1947.
A 2016 study conducted by the National Law University NLU in Delhi put this number at 755.
The discrepancy in the figures arises mainly due to lack of official figures and very little data
available in public domain on the death sentences carried out in India.

Crimes punishable by death

Crimes punishable by death in India include aggravated murder, other offences resulting in death,
terrorism-related crimes resulting in death, terrorism-related cases not resulting in death, rape not
resulting in death, kidnapping not resulting in death, drug trafficking not resulting in death, treason,
espionage and military offenses not resulting in death.

The judgments in the Bachan Singh vs State of Punjab play a crucial role in deciding whether any
crime deserves death penalty or not.
For example, under the Indian Arms Act, 1959, using, carrying, manufacturing, selling, transferring,
or testing prohibited arms or ammunition had a mandatory death sentence in case of casualty.

But a Supreme Court order in February 2012 had ruled this provision “unconstitutional in light of the
judgments in Bachan Singh v. State of Punjab and Mithu v. State of Punjab”.
This suggests that offences resulting in death are punishable by death only when they meet the
“rarest of rare” standard laid out in the Bachan Singh case.

Following the 2012 gang rape and murder, the Supreme Court amended the law in April 2013 to
make it more stringent by adding new categories of offences regarding violence against women and
minor girls.

“Such legislation has come to India for the first time and the Parliament has given its approval,” then
home minister Sushilkumar Shinde had said.

Is death penalty constitutional?

The Mithu vs State of Punjab judgment states that death penalty is not a mandatory punishment for
the above listed crimes. The Supreme Court had also ruled that mandatory death penalty is
unconstitutional.
Section 416 of the CrPC says if a woman sentenced to death is found to be pregnant, the high court
shall order the execution of the sentence to be postponed and may, if it thinks fit, commute the
sentence to imprisonment for life.
The Supreme Court has also held that mental illness is a “mitigating factor” sparing those with such
disorders from the gallows.

Mercy petition process

For a convict to file a mercy petition, his/her death sentence must be confirmed by a high court first.

The law says: “The death sentence convict has an option to appeal to the Supreme Court. If the
Supreme Court either refuses to hear the appeal or upholds the death sentence, then the convict or

First woman to be Hanged in India | Recommended Articles by AcetheCLAT 8

 his relatives can submit a mercy petition to the President of India Articles 72 or the Governor of
the State 161.”
Grounds to seek mercy appeal range from physical fitness, age, law was too harsh, or the convict is
the sole breadwinner of the family.

According to Article 72 of the Constitution, the power to pardon — philosophy of which is “every
civilised country recognises and provides for the pardoning power as an act of grace and humanity
in course of law” — lies with the President.
The Article also states that he/she can grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of
punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the convict.
The mercy petition is reviewed by the Ministry of Home Affairs, which consults the state involved,
before going to the President.

While former President Pranab Mukherjee had rejected 24 mercy pleas, his predecessor, Pratibha
Patil, granted a record 30 pardons, some of which were cases of brutal crimes.
President Ram Nath Kovind, who came to power in July 2017, has rejected at least two mercy
petitions — that of Jagat Rai, who burnt alive seven people, five of them children, and the most
recent being 2012 gang-rape convict Akshay.
The powers of the governor of state are very similar to that of the President. According to Article
161, the governor can “grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend,
remit or commute the sentence of any person convicted of any offence against any law relating to a
matter to which the executive power of the state extends”.
This report has been updated to accurately reflect that Dhananjoy Chatterjee 2004 was not the
first convict to be hanged after Auto Shankar 1995. According to NLU Delhi’s Project 39A, there
have been a few more hangings between 1995 and 2004.

💡 SC upholds death for U.P. teacher, lover - The Hindu

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/sc-upholds-death-for-up-teacher-
lover/article7220784.ece

Shabnam, a teacher in Amroha district of Uttar Pradesh, whose death sentenced was upheld by the
Supreme Court, wanted to do away with her family, who was opposed to her relationship, and keep
the family property to herself, the court has confirmed.
Quoting the prosecution, the Supreme Court judgment said she strangled her 10-month-old nephew
with her own hands. She then lay down, pretending to be unconscious, near her dead father till the
neighbours broke into the house.
A trial court convicted and sentenced the duo to death in July 2008. The decision was upheld by
the Allahabad High Court in April 2013.

First woman to be Hanged in India | Recommended Articles by AcetheCLAT 9

 Rarest of rare crime
In its recent judgment on their appeals, a Bench led by Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu said the fact
that an educated teacher from a civilised family committed this crime and showed no remorse
afterwards by itself makes it a “rarest of rare” crime deserving the death penalty.

“Such a deed as parricide would be sufficiently appalling were the perpetrator and the victims
uneducated and backward. But it gains a ghastly illumination from the descent, moral upbringing,
and elegant respectful living of the educated family where the father and daughter are both
teachers,” Justice Dattu said.

“Here is a case in which Shabnam, who has been brought up in an educated and independent
environment by her family and was respectfully employed as a Shikshamitra (teacher) at the school,
influenced by the love and lust of her paramour has committed this brutal parricide exterminating
seven lives, including that of an innocent child,” the judgment said.

Justifying its decision to uphold her death sentence, the apex court said Shabnam’s crime triggered
intense indignation in the community as it shattered the modern Indian parents’ faith that their
educated daughter would care for them in their old age.

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