Govt mulling setting up expert panel to examine mode of executing death row convicts by hanging

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, May 2

The Centre is mulling setting up a panel of experts to examine the mode of executing death row convicts by hanging, the Supreme Court was informed on Tuesday.

Attorney General R Venkataramani told a Bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud that the Centre is considering the suggestion on constituting a panel of experts and deliberations were on.

Noting that there were processes related to finalisation of names for the proposed panel, Venkataramani said he would be able to inform the court about further course of action after some time.

In view of the Attorney General’s submissions, the Bench posted the matter for after the summer vacation.

The Supreme Court had on March 21 favoured setting up of an expert panel to examine whether execution of death row convicts by hanging was proportionate and less painful.

While hearing a PIL filed by advocate Rishi Malhotra seeking removal of the present mode of execution of death row convicts by hanging, the CJI-led Bench had sought “better data ” from the Centre on various modes of execution. Thirty-six states in the US have already abandoned the practice of executing convicts by hanging, Malhotra contended.

The Bench, however, had made clear that it cannot direct the legislature to adopt a particular mode of sentencing death row convicts.

If there was any data either in India or abroad regarding alternative methods of executing the death penalty then it would be better to form a panel which may consist of experts from the National Law Universities, AIIMS doctors and scientists, it had noted.

The Bench had asked the Attorney General to get more information on the impact of death by hanging, pain caused, and the period taken for such death to take place and availability of resources to effectuate such hangings.

The bench had asked if science suggested that the execution by hanging was still the “best method today or if there was another method more suitable to uphold human dignity”.

In his PIL filed in 2017, Malhotra has sought abolition of the present practice of executing a death row convict by hanging. He wanted it to be replaced with less painful methods such as “intravenous lethal injection, shooting, electrocution or gas chamber”. The PIL referred to the 187th Report of the Law Commission advocating removal of the present mode of execution from the statute.

In an affidavit filed in April 2018, the Centre had defended “hanging by the neck till death” — the practice of execution of death sentence, terming it a safer and quick method for termination of life of a death row convict. Other modes of execution of death sentences such as lethal injection or firing squad, if bungled, could lead to results that could be called barbaric, inhuman, and cruel, it had said.

Malhotra 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.

“The procedure followed for execution by electrocution or lethal injection or firing squad could be just as inhumane or barbaric to another person. As far as likelihood of execution getting botched up is concerned, the statistics show that hanging with more advanced procedures is far safer than techniques such as lethal injection,” the Centre had submitted. It had said hanging was consistent with the state’s obligation to ensure the process of execution was conducted with decency and decorum without involving degradation or brutality of any kind.