Yakub Memon: The State Cannot be in the Business of Killing
9 years, 8 months ago

Yakub Memon: The State Cannot be in the Business of Killing

The Quint  

An Eye for an Eye? Different trial courts across India sentenced more than 1,400 persons to death between 2001 and 2011, but only four have been hanged since 1995. It’s true that the Supreme Court has made incremental advance making laws related to the death penalty more humane and has held that it should be awarded only in the “rarest of rare” cases. On July 23, a five-judge Bench of the apex court led by Chief Justice of India H L Dattu observed quite casually that “what is the point in keeping a man in jail for whole life. This mindset reveals the Old Testament proclamation that “if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.” It also exposes the judiciary’s long-held principle of retributive justice: that punishment of the most extreme kind is justified on the ground that wrongdoing merits the harshest of punishment.

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History of this topic

Seeking an eye for an eye
1 month, 2 weeks ago

Seeking an eye for an eye

The Hindu  

On February 7, the Calcutta High Court rejected the West Bengal government’s appeal seeking the death penalty for the man convicted for the rape and murder case of a woman at the R.G. Faced with widespread and prolonged protests after the gruesome incident on August 9, 2024, the West Bengal government was the first to demand the death penalty for …

Death Penalty in India: Courts Clash Over Reform Standards in Murder Cases
2 months ago

Death Penalty in India: Courts Clash Over Reform Standards in Murder Cases

The Hindu  

Published : Jan 26, 2025 12:11 IST - 6 MINS READ The rape and murder of a trainee doctor at the R.G. Just when everyone assumed that the convict in the case, the prime accused Sanjay Roy, was sure to be sentenced to death in view of the public outcry against the gruesome incident, the Additional Sessions Judge, 1st Court, …

Evolution of jurisprudence around capital punishment, its procedures
1 year, 11 months ago

Evolution of jurisprudence around capital punishment, its procedures

Hindustan Times  

The Supreme Court last month decided to test the validity of hanging by the neck as the method of executing death sentence in India, stating that the method can be declared unconstitutional if there is scientific material favouring a different method of execution as less painful and “more consistent with human dignity”. Over the years, there has been a constant …

Uphold dignity in death penalty
2 years ago

Uphold dignity in death penalty

Hindustan Times  

There are layers upon layers in the judicial debate on capital punishment — the efficacy and ethics of administering the death penalty, the adequacy of procedural safeguards, the choice of the most humane way to execute a person, and even the moral argument — but at its heart rests the motivation to safeguard the dignity of the life that is …

165 Death Sentences Awarded By Trial Courts In 2022, Highest Ever In A Year Since 2000 : Project 39A Report
2 years, 1 month ago

165 Death Sentences Awarded By Trial Courts In 2022, Highest Ever In A Year Since 2000 : Project 39A Report

Live Law  

In 2022, trial courts imposed the largest number of death sentences in a single year since 2000 while the death row population was the highest it has been since 2004. Overview of Death Sentences In 2022, trial courts imposed death sentences on 165 persons - the largest number of death sentences imposed in a single year in over two decades …

Why India needs a rethink before expanding scope of death penalty
2 years, 4 months ago

Why India needs a rethink before expanding scope of death penalty

Firstpost  

It is crystal clear the graph of number of death sentences dips amazingly as the cases get referred up Put yourself in the shoes of a rape and murder victim’s parents. But while the Delhi High Court had given the death punishment calling the accused “predators”, the Supreme Court exonerated all three defendants for the 2012 rape and murder of …

The death penalty and humanising criminal justice
2 years, 5 months ago

The death penalty and humanising criminal justice

The Hindu  

As a conservative agency of the state, the Supreme Court of India is ordinarily expected to tread the path laid out by the written text of law and the binding precedents. On policies and uniformity The focus here is on reframing ‘Framing Guidelines Regarding Potential Mitigating Circumstances to be Considered While Imposing Death Sentences’, a decision authored by the three …

DC Edit | SC move to set guidelines on death penalty welcome
2 years, 6 months ago

DC Edit | SC move to set guidelines on death penalty welcome

Deccan Chronicle  

The decision of the Supreme Court to set up a Constitution Bench to lay down guidelines for the courts on providing a convict a real and meaningful hearing before deciding on a death penalty is a refreshing step that will further civilise the criminal justice delivery system in our country. The only protection a person can have against incarceration or …

Revisiting death penalty jurisprudence
2 years, 11 months ago

Revisiting death penalty jurisprudence

The Hindu  

On April 22, a Bench of the Supreme Court of India, led by Justice U.U. Several other cases also were decided by ignoring the Bachan Singh doctrine, as noted by the Supreme Court itself in Santhosh Kumar Satishbhushan Bariyar vs State of Maharashtra and Rajesh Kumar vs State. Taking empirical lessons from the fate of Bachan Singh, the Supreme Court …

Ahmedabad serial blasts: Indian court sentences 38 out of 49 convicts to death in 2008 case
3 years, 1 month ago

Ahmedabad serial blasts: Indian court sentences 38 out of 49 convicts to death in 2008 case

The Independent  

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy A local court in the …

[VIDEO] Deathworthy - A Discussion On Mental Health Perspective Of Death Penalty -Justice S. Muralidhar
3 years, 5 months ago

[VIDEO] Deathworthy - A Discussion On Mental Health Perspective Of Death Penalty -Justice S. Muralidhar

Live Law  

Five years of Project 39A's work to understand psychiatric illnesses and intellectual disability among death row prisoners in India has culminated in Deathworthy: A Mental Health Perspective of the Death Penalty.Join us for a discussion on the report at 5:30 pm on 20th October 2021.The panel comprises • Justice S. Muralidhar • Professor Pratima. Five years of Project 39A's work …

Tomorrow AT 5.30 PM - Deathworthy - A Discussion On Mental Health Perspective Of Death Penalty -Justice S. Muralidhar
3 years, 5 months ago

Tomorrow AT 5.30 PM - Deathworthy - A Discussion On Mental Health Perspective Of Death Penalty -Justice S. Muralidhar

Live Law  

Five years of Project 39A's work to understand psychiatric illnesses and intellectual disability among death row prisoners in India has culminated in Deathworthy: A Mental Health Perspective of the Death Penalty.Join us for a discussion on the report at 5:30 pm on 20th October 2021.The panel comprises • Justice S. Muralidhar • Professor Pratima. Five years of Project 39A's work …

Death Penalty Sentencing in India's Trial Courts: Confusion in the Apex Court Wreaks Havoc in Courts Below
4 years, 10 months ago

Death Penalty Sentencing in India's Trial Courts: Confusion in the Apex Court Wreaks Havoc in Courts Below

Live Law  

Project 39A has released a report titled DeathPenalty Sentencing in Trial Courts: Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra containing findings from a study of all capital cases decided by trial courts of Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra between 2000 and 2015. Contrary to the Constitution Bench decision in Bachan Singh which emphasised the relevance of mitigating factors in capital sentencing, trial …

Nirbhaya case :Human Rights activists "cry foul" after rapists are executed
5 years ago

Nirbhaya case :Human Rights activists "cry foul" after rapists are executed

Op India  

Following the execution of the convicts involved in the brutal gangrape and murder of 23-year-old physiotherapy student in 2012 who was named “Nirbhaya” by the media, several self-proclaimed human rights activists assumed moral high ground and dubbed the death penalty handed out to the convicts as an act of revenge. #Nirbhaya https://t.co/tWHlKA2Zh9 — Mohd Mojahid March 20, 2020 Citing the …

Delhi gangrape: With courts evoking 'collective conscience' in handing death penalty, it's time we examined our own
5 years ago

Delhi gangrape: With courts evoking 'collective conscience' in handing death penalty, it's time we examined our own

Firstpost  

When the French sociologist David Émile Durkheim articulated the concept of the ‘collective conscience’, he made it a point to say he wasn’t defining it as a shared moral conscience between people. Already we had been told that prisoners from the Buxar Central Jail have spun the rope that fulfills the mandate of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 which …

Continuing debate
5 years, 1 month ago

Continuing debate

The Hindu  

THE delay in the hanging of the convicts in the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old physiotherapist in December 2012 has been a matter of intense discussion. While recommending partial abolition of the death penalty in 2015, the Law Commission, based on National Crime Records Bureau figures, concluded that murder rates were falling and, correspondingly, the rate of execution …

Nirbhaya Case: How Disturbingly Clamour For Death Manifested Itself In Courtroom
5 years, 1 month ago

Nirbhaya Case: How Disturbingly Clamour For Death Manifested Itself In Courtroom

Live Law  

It would be an understatement to say that the Nirbhaya rape case is more than just a 'legal proceeding'. It was during the recently concluded execution proceedings, wherein the Additional Sessions Judge ended up staying the date of execution sine die, that this unjustified clamour manifested itself. Despite being aware of the Delhi Prison Rules and how the same unambiguously …

Time has come for India to kill death penalty
5 years, 10 months ago

Time has come for India to kill death penalty

Firstpost  

In a country where people die of heat waves, extreme cold, homelessness, hunger, malnutrition and extrajudicial executions, abolishing the death penalty is going to be a challenge because life is so devalued. The Delhi gang rape case and the Kathua rape case saw death penalty being extended to non-homicide offences amid a clamour for harsher punishments. It is evident that …

SC Acquits Six Men to Whom It Had Given Death Sentence in 2009
6 years ago

SC Acquits Six Men to Whom It Had Given Death Sentence in 2009

The Quint  

The judgment of the court could have far-reaching consequences because it was a complete U-turn on the decision originally taken by the Supreme Court itself 10 years ago. The legal error made by Justice Pasayat in the 2009 decision had been made in six other cases, and there was a significant issue with contrasting death penalty decisions during his tenure …

Time Has Come To Examine The Need For Death Penalty As Punishment Especially Its Purpose And Practice: Justice Kurian Joseph, Other Two Judges Disagree [Read Judgment]
6 years, 4 months ago

Time Has Come To Examine The Need For Death Penalty As Punishment Especially Its Purpose And Practice: Justice Kurian Joseph, Other Two Judges Disagree [Read Judgment]

Live Law  

“Every death penalty case before the court deals with a human life that enjoys certain constitutional protections and if life is to be taken away, then the process must adhere to the strictest and highest constitutional standards. Our conscience as judges, which is guided by constitutional principles, cannot allow anything less than that.” Justice Kurian Joseph, while commuting death penalty …

Explained: Death Penalty- Matters Of Judgment
7 years, 3 months ago

Explained: Death Penalty- Matters Of Judgment

Live Law  

The Centre on the Death Penalty of the National Law University, released on November 8, a Judges’ Opinion Study, titled “Matters of Judgment” on the death penalty and the Criminal Justice System. A: The aim of the study is to explore the opinions of former judges of the Supreme Court of India on the death penalty and more generally on …

Death penalty comes with the jurisprudence of outrage
7 years, 10 months ago

Death penalty comes with the jurisprudence of outrage

The Hindu  

There was nothing unexpected about the final verdict of the Supreme Court in the ‘Nirbhaya’ case. In the Nirbhaya case, too, the citations inevitably lead to the main point drawn from Machhi Singh that capital punishment is to be given in the rarest of rare cases “when its collective conscience is so shocked that it will expect the holders of …

India’s top court upholds death sentences in gang-rape case that shocked nation
7 years, 10 months ago

India’s top court upholds death sentences in gang-rape case that shocked nation

LA Times  

India’s top court on Friday upheld the death sentences of four men who were convicted in the fatal gang rape and torture of a 23-year-old medical student on a moving bus in the capital nearly five years ago. The court held that the nature of the crime, which triggered massive protests across India, made it an appropriate case for the …

A Systemic Trend In India In Awarding Death Penalty Against Marginalized Populations: Dr.Anup Surendranath [Video]
7 years, 11 months ago

A Systemic Trend In India In Awarding Death Penalty Against Marginalized Populations: Dr.Anup Surendranath [Video]

Live Law  

On 7 March, 2017 NALSAR Lecture Series on Constitutionalism hosted its eighth speaker, Dr. AnupSurendranath. He started off by highlighting the dichotomy of opinions that exists with respect to death penalty byreading excerpts from the US Supreme Court decision of Callins v. Collins. The Supreme Court can and has dismissed death penalty SLPsin limine.Justice Nariman, speaking for majority in the …

Emotions and word of law
8 years ago

Emotions and word of law

Deccan Chronicle  

Judges should never be bloodthirsty — a real concern for the dignity of human life postulates resistance to taking a life through law’s instrumentality. That ought not to be done save in the rarest of rare cases when the alternative option is unquestionably foreclosed.” The Supreme Court spoke thus in the Bachan Singh case. In its 35th report in December …

Eye for an eye or castration for child rapists: Why Madras HC’s retributive justice suggestion should be thrown out
9 years, 5 months ago

Eye for an eye or castration for child rapists: Why Madras HC’s retributive justice suggestion should be thrown out

Firstpost  

While the Madras HC suggests castration for child rapists, it should be recalled that the Indian Penal Code has never been in favour of retributive justice except perhaps when it prescribes death sentence in the rarest of rare cases for murder As reported on 26 October 2015, the Madras High Court, while dealing with an application by a British national …

The case against death penalty
9 years, 6 months ago

The case against death penalty

The Hindu  

The Law Commission of India has taken a historic step by >declaring that the abolition of the death penalty must become a goal for India. It makes a clean break with the ‘rarest of the rare’ principle that was laid down in Bachan Singh vs State of Punjab : that judgment noted that the application of the death penalty would …

Keep death sentence only for terror-related offences: Law panel
9 years, 6 months ago

Keep death sentence only for terror-related offences: Law panel

India TV News  

New Delhi: The Law Commission, in a report released on Monday, recommended India abolish the death penalty, with the exception of terror-related offences, saying that sending a convict to the gallows has lost its relevance as a deterrent to curb heinous offences. While not recommending the abolition of death sentence in terror-related cases, the commission has however, said that "there …

Is death penalty a terror deterrent?
9 years, 7 months ago

Is death penalty a terror deterrent?

The Hindu  

The city of Mumbai was the target of unprecedented terrorist attacks on March 12, 1993. Bhagwati, while declaring unconstitutional and void Section 302 read with Section 354 as being violative of Articles 14 and 21, made the following observation: “I may make it clear that the question to which I am addressing myself is only in regard to the proportionality …

Yakub Memon hanging aftermath: The irrationality of arguments against death sentence
9 years, 7 months ago

Yakub Memon hanging aftermath: The irrationality of arguments against death sentence

Firstpost  

Opposition to the death penalty is founded on the belief that retribution is unworthy; it should be abolished because we are a civilised society. A crime of passion, or even a simple, pre-meditated murder, does not qualify for the death penalty under Indian law. To take just the most recent examples, regardless of anyone’s view of the death penalty, no …

Should Judicial Processes be Seen Through a Religious Prism?
9 years, 7 months ago

Should Judicial Processes be Seen Through a Religious Prism?

The Quint  

Multi-Level Issues Beyond the facts, critical issues and questions need to be assessed at several levels. At one level, a larger public debate about abolishing the death sentence latched onto the decision to execute Yakub. The posthumous publishing of an article by one of India’s top intelligence officers of that time, Bahukutumbi Raman, somewhat complicated issues. In his article, Raman …

Questions raised over Yakub Memon’s hanging
9 years, 7 months ago

Questions raised over Yakub Memon’s hanging

Live Mint  

New Delhi: Despite a last-ditch effort at appealing to India’s highest court to provide a grace period of 14 days, Yakub Memon, the lone convict in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, was reportedly executed at the Nagpur central prison on Thursday morning. In an editorial last week, The Hindu said that hanging Memon “will only give the impression that the …

India execution brings out mixed feelings on punishment - India TV News
9 years, 7 months ago

India execution brings out mixed feelings on punishment - India TV News

India TV News  

New Delhi : Few countries sentence more people to death than India. About 300 prominent citizens, including at least eight retired judges of the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court, had urged India's president to commute Memon's sentence to life in prison, reflecting what appears to be growing uneasiness in India with the death penalty. The relatively low number …

What is at Stake is Our Commitment to National Self-Improvement
9 years, 7 months ago

What is at Stake is Our Commitment to National Self-Improvement

The Quint  

Institutions as Executioners There were other executioners who had foretold his death by hanging – the President of India who has rejected more mercy petitions than he has signed on presidential decrees; the executive, which sat silent even when its investigating agencies had informally sounded out Yakub after his “arrest” that they would not press for death penalty; the judiciary …

A Judge as Delusional Dictator Clinging on to Death By Hanging
9 years, 8 months ago

A Judge as Delusional Dictator Clinging on to Death By Hanging

The Quint  

The legal course of Mumbai blast-accused convict Yakub Memon’s appeals of clemency against the death penalty imposed on him, and subsequently ratified by the Supreme Court, has unequivocally revealed that while handing out capital punishment, the pronouncements of our judges echo that of the state – uncompromisingly and whimsically bent on inflicting death to a broken man. Of the two …

‘Crime must be punished’
9 years, 8 months ago

‘Crime must be punished’

The Hindu  

In 1993, 39-year-old lawyer Ujjwal Nikam was appointed as Special Public Prosecutor in the 1993 serial blasts case. Speaking to The Hindu, he revisits the 1993 trial in light of the death penalty awarded to Yakub Memon. I do not want to comment on that as the matter is sub judice, but the Supreme Court has laid down certain guidelines …

Yakub Memon and the story of the death penalty, so far
9 years, 8 months ago

Yakub Memon and the story of the death penalty, so far

The Hindu  

The Supreme Court on Tuesday >dismissed a curative petition filed by Yakub Memon, sentenced to death by a special TADA court for his role in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts. This is India’s third execution since it lifted its informal eight-year moratorium on executions in December 2012, when it hanged Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai …

Mixed response on abolition of death penalty in India |IndiaTV News
9 years, 8 months ago

Mixed response on abolition of death penalty in India |IndiaTV News

India TV News  

New Delhi: A discussion on a law commission consultation paper on whether capital punishment should be retained or abolished on Saturday evoked a mixed response. While former President APJ Abdul Kalam, DMK leader Kanimozhi and former West Bengal governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi, supported the abolition of death penalty, several others, including SC bar association's Dushyant Dave favoured retaining the capital punishment. …

Death Penalty – Is it ever Justified?
10 years, 5 months ago

Death Penalty – Is it ever Justified?

Live Law  

‘Every saint has a past and every sinner a future, never write off the man wearing the criminal attire but remove the dangerous degeneracy in him, restore his retarded human potential by holistic healing of his fevered, fatigued or frustrated inside and by repairing the repressive, though hidden, injustice of the social order which is vicariously guilty of the criminal …

Death Penalty – Is it ever Justified?
10 years, 5 months ago

Death Penalty – Is it ever Justified?

Live Law  

‘Every saint has a past and every sinner a future, never write off the man wearing the criminal attire but remove the dangerous degeneracy in him, restore his retarded human potential by holistic healing of his fevered, fatigued or frustrated inside and by repairing the repressive, though hidden, injustice of the social order which is vicariously guilty of the criminal …

Mercy and the machinery of death
11 years ago

Mercy and the machinery of death

The Hindu  

IN Bamnia village in Purulia, West Bengal, the mother of Ajay Kumar Pal, India’s latest mercy-rejected death-row prisoner, lives in abject poverty with very little to eat or wear, surviving on food that villagers give her on some days for clearing dung from their cowsheds. The cumulative effect of these judgments is that the delay in deciding mercy petitions is, …

Putting a full stop to death sentence
11 years, 1 month ago

Putting a full stop to death sentence

The Hindu  

The recent decision of the Supreme Court of India in Shatrughan Chauhan v. Union of India is a remarkable example of how innovative judicial craftsmanship can lead to the upholding of constitutional values, while humanising capital punishment. In this regard, the Court observed: “…if there is undue, unexplained and inordinate delay in execution due to pendency of mercy petitions or …

The agony of awaiting death
11 years, 1 month ago

The agony of awaiting death

The Hindu  

On January 21, 2014 the Supreme Court of India pronounced a momentous judgment relieving the agony of convicts in India sentenced to death awaiting their execution for prolonged periods of time. The Court has held that a convict sentenced to death has a Constitutional right to petition the President for relief against his sentence, and the consideration of his petition …

Four sentenced to death in India gang-rape case
11 years, 6 months ago

Four sentenced to death in India gang-rape case

LA Times  

NEW DELHI -- An Indian court Friday sentenced four men to death in the December rape and murder of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student on a moving bus, one of the nation’s most closely watched legal decisions in recent history. The victim, who died of massive internal injuries two weeks after the brutal assault, was not named under Indian law, but …

For a moratorium on death sentence
12 years, 3 months ago

For a moratorium on death sentence

The Hindu  

The Supreme Court’s five-judge Constitution Bench judgment in Bachan Singh is the source of contemporary death penalty jurisprudence in India. In Sangeet, the Radhakrishnan-Lokur Bench has continued the judicial scrutiny started by Bariyar of post- Bachan Singh death penalty cases, to see if they have complied with the requirements of the law. Bachan Singh, delivered by a five-judge Constitution Bench, …

A case against the death penalty
12 years, 6 months ago

A case against the death penalty

The Hindu  

The Supreme Courts admission of error in the sentencing to death of 13 convicts revives the debate over abolishing the death penalty. The Supreme Court, while deciding three recent cases, held that seven of its judgments awarding the death sentence were rendered per incuriam and contrary to the binding dictum of rarest of rare category propounded in the Constitution Bench …

Death penalty is barbaric, says judge
13 years, 4 months ago

Death penalty is barbaric, says judge

The Hindu  

Supreme Court Judge A.K. Ganguly on Tuesday termed death penalty “barbaric,” “anti-life,” “undemocratic” and “irresponsible,” but “legal.” Expressing his “personal views” on the subject, Justice Ganguly said the constitutional guarantee of ‘right to life' could not be subjected to vague premises. The ‘rarest of rare' doctrine in death penalty cases “is a grey area as it depended on the interpretation …

Rajiv killing: Where’s the bleeding heart sympathy for other victims?
13 years, 6 months ago

Rajiv killing: Where’s the bleeding heart sympathy for other victims?

Firstpost  

The outpouring of feeling for the killers of the former Prime Minister is intriguing. Fifteen other persons were killed besides former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on that fateful day in Sriperumbudur in May 1991 when an LTTE suicide bomber blew herself up at a meeting site. Their families are on a day’s hunger strike in Chennai today demanding that the …

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