Hanging most viable method to execute death row convicts, SC told

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 9

The NDA government on Tuesday opposed use of lethal injection to execute a death row convict, saying it “was not workable”.

During hearing of a PIL filed by advocate Rishi Malhotra, Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand told a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra that hanging by the neck was the most viable method to execute a death row convict.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra wondered how the court could decide the mode of execution.

It asked the Centre to file its response spelling out its stand on the contentious issue in four weeks. It said the government affidavit should have details about various modes of execution in other parts of the world.

In his PIL filed in September last year, Malhotra has sought abolition of the practice of hanging by the neck followed in India. Alternative methods such as intravenous lethal injection or shooting should be used for execution, Malhotra submitted in his petition.

Malhotra has contended that hanging involved prolonged pain and suffering compared to the other two methods.

He wanted the top court to “declare Right to Die by a dignified procedure of death” as a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution.

Quoting 1996 Supreme Court verdict in Gian Kaur vs State of Punjab, he submitted "the right to life, including the right to live with human dignity, would mean the existence of such a right up to the end of natural life. This also includes the right to a dignified life up to the point of death, including a dignified procedure of death…”

The entire execution process in hanging takes over 40 minutes to declare a convict dead while shooting involves not more than a few minutes and intravenous lethal injection it’s hardly five minutes, he contended.

Citing Law Commission’s 35th Report submitted to the government in 1967, he said most of the countries have adopted electrocution, firing squad or gas chamber as a substitute for death by hanging.

In his petition, Malhotra has requested the top court to declare unconstitutional Section 354(5) of the Criminal Procedure Code, which says "when any person is sentenced to death, the sentence shall direct that he be hanged by the neck till he is dead".