DEATH PENALTY IN INDIA, 2018
Jan. 25, 2019

According to ‘Death Penalty in India: Annual Statistics Report 2018’ – prepared by Project 39A at the National Law University, Delhi –, the number of death sentences awarded by trial courts in India saw a sharp rise in 2018.

 

Number of Death sentences awarded:

  • 162 death sentences were awarded by trial courts across the country in 2018. This is the highest in a calendar year since 2000.

  • No death sentences were pronounced in eight states — among them Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura.

  • Last year, the Supreme Court commuted death sentences to life imprisonment in 11 of the 12 cases it heard. It upheld the sentence for three persons convicted in the December 16 Delhi gangrape case.

  • The number of people on death row in India as of December 2018 stands at 426 — it was 366 for the corresponding month in 2017 and 400 in 2016.

Socio-economic profile of death row convicts:

  • Economic Vulnerability: Around 70% of the prisoners sentenced to death in India are economically vulnerable according to their occupation and landholding.

  • Educational Profile: Around 20% of prisoners sentenced to death had never attended school. A further 10% had barely attended but had not completed even their primary school education.

  • Caste and Religious Profile: Around 70% of prisoners sentenced to death in India are backward classes and religious minorities.

Reasons for rise in death sentence:

  • In August, Parliament amended the Indian Penal Code (IPC) to provide for death penalty as a possible punishment in cases of rape and gangrape of girls below the age of 12. This happened in the wake of national outrage over the rape and murder of a minor girl in Kathua.

  • Madhya Pradesh invoked this IPC amendment in the highest number of cases involving child sexual assault, resulting in death sentences to 22 people last year. The MP government has also introduced a rewards scheme for public prosecutors who seek the death penalty.

Other key developments in 2018 related to death penalty:

  • In Chhannu Lal Verma vs State of Chhattisgarh, supreme court judge, Kurian Joseph, called for reconsidering the death penalty as a punishment, whose constitutionality was upheld by the apex court in Bachan Singh (1980).

  • Supreme Court in Babasaheb Kamble v State of Maharashtra passed the judgement that it could “dismiss the Special Leave Petitions in death penalty cases without giving any reasons and not admitting them to be heard as appeals.”

  • The SC also recognised the right of death row prisoners for meeting mental health professionals at a reasonable frequency and for reasonable lengths of time.

  • India also voted against the UN General Assembly’s draft resolution proposing a ban on the death penalty.

Do You Know?

  • The National Law University, Delhi: It was established in 2008 under the National Law University Act, 2007 with the objective of imparting comprehensive and interdisciplinary legal education.

  • Project 39A:
    • Project 39A is inspired by Article 39-A of the Indian Constitution, a provision that furthers equal justice and equal opportunity by removing economic and social barriers.

    • Using empirical research, Project 39A aims to trigger new conversations on legal aid, torture, DNA forensics, mental health in prisons, and the death penalty.