New Delhi, Aug 18 — The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to ban hanging as the mode of execution in the country, allowing the government and other stakeholders to discuss and explore other viable, scientifically proven options to “hanging till death”.
A bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta declined to issue any judicial mandate to replace “hanging till death”, for now.
The apex court was hearing a petition filed by Senior Advocate Rishi Malhotra in 2017, challenging the constitutionality of the “hanging till death” provision in Section 354(5) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC, now replaced by the BNSS).
The bench refused to reconsider a previous judgment of the top court which upheld “hanging till death” as a valid mode of executing a death sentence awarded to convicts in the rarest of rare cases.
The petitioner had sought a review of the apex court’s 1983 Constitution Bench judgment in the Deena Dayal versus Union of India matter, upholding hanging as constitutionally valid.
On Tuesday, the apex court said that in future the Union government is free to consider alternatives to “hanging till death” that may preserve the dignity of condemned prisoners and reduce pain.
Describing the right to die with dignity as an integral part of the right to life, petitioner Malhotra argued that hanging till death is cruel and barbaric.
The petition said that hanging should no longer be used as a mode of execution and alternatives such as lethal injection should be adopted, as has been done in some other nations.
Malhotra asked the court to replace hanging with a more humane alternative, including by allowing condemned prisoners a choice in the mode of execution.
During the hearing, the apex court also sought the views of Senior Advocate Meenakshi Arora associated with Project 39A, a criminal justice programme that provides legal aid and representation to death row prisoners.
Arora suggested referring the matter to an expert committee as lethal injection had not been found to be very successful.