SC rejects plea seeking less painful methods to execute death row convicts

The Supreme Court has dismissed a plea seeking replacement of hanging with less painful methods for executing death row convicts. The bench said its verdict would not prevent the Centre from reviewing the existing method through an expert body.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition seeking the abolition of the present practice of executing a death row convict by hanging and replacing it with less painful methods such as intravenous lethal injection.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said its verdict would not preclude the Centre from undertaking a comprehensive review of the existing method of execution through an expert body with a view to examining whether any alternative method of execution better serves the constitutional objective of minimising unnecessary pain while preserving the dignity of the condemned prisoner.

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The bench delivered its verdict on a plea filed in 2017 by senior advocate Rishi Malhotra, seeking removal of the present mode of execution of death row convicts by hanging from the statute.

The petition had sought abolition of the practice of executing a death row convict by hanging and replacing it with less painful methods such as “intravenous lethal injection, shooting, electrocution or gas chamber”. During the arguments, Malhotra had said at least an option should be given to a condemned prisoner as to whether he wanted hanging or lethal injection as a mode of execution.

In March 2023, the apex court said it may consider setting up a committee of experts to examine whether execution of death row convicts by hanging was proportionate and less painful and sought “better data” from the Centre on issues regarding the mode of execution.

The top court, however, made it clear that it cannot direct the legislature to adopt a particular mode of sentencing condemned convicts.

In 2018, the Centre strongly supported a legal provision that a death row convict would only be hanged to death and had told the bench that the other modes of execution, like lethal injections and firing, were not less painful.

The counter affidavit, filed by the joint secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, had said that death by hanging was “quick, simple” and free from anything that would “unnecessarily sharpen the poignancy of the prisoner”. The affidavit was filed in response to the PIL, which referred to the 187th Report of the Law Commission advocating the removal of the present mode of execution from the statute.