It is believed that every guilty act deserves a retribution. The accused or the offender must be punished for the wrongful act he/she committed. India has various punishments that are awarded to the offenders. The five different kinds of punishments awarded by the Indian Penal Code, 1860 have been enumerated under Section 53, and those are: Death, Life imprisonment, Simple or rigorous imprisonment, fine and Forfeiture of property.
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for a crime. The sentence ordering that someone is punished with death penalty is known as a death sentence. The death penalty is a legal punishment in India. This is permissible in rarest of the rare cases or certain specific section of crime. This punishment is contained under some legislations of India like The Indian Penal Code, 1860.
In India, various offences such as criminal conspiracy, aggravated murder, war against the government, abetment of mutiny, dacoity with murder, Drug trafficking, anti-terrorism etc are punishable with death sentences under Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The president has a pardoning power where he can grant mercy to the accused. Under Article 72 of the Constitution of India, the President has the power to grant pardon, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or reduce the sentence of any person who has been convicted of an offence.
There are two methods of execution in India and they are: Hanging and Shooting. All the death penalties in India are carried out by hanging. Under the 1950 Army Act, both hanging and shooting are listed in the military court-martial system as official methods of execution. The offenders who are excluded from capital punishment are Minors, pregnant women and intellectually disabled person.
Various opinions are studied when asked about capital punishment. Some think this is the violation of Article 21 and the offenders should be given another chance to reform their personality and mindsets while on the other hand some people have different opinion regarding this that the death penalty makes it impossible for the criminals to do bad things over and over again and to set an example in the society this punishment is appropriate.
In Maneka Gandhi v. Union, the court held that, Article 21 of the Constitution guarantees the right to life and personal freedom to all, including the right to live with human dignity. The state may take away or abridge even the right to live in the name of law and public order. But this procedure must be “due process”. The procedure that takes away a human being’s sacrosanct life must be just, fair and reasonable.
In Bachhan Singh vs State of Punjab, the Court held that capital punishment will only be given in rarest of rare cases.
In Ravji v. State of Rajasthan, December 1995, The two bench of Supreme Court held that the nature and gravity of the crime, not the criminal should be considered as an appropriate method, for opting between choice of life imprisonment and death penalty.
References:
- Iblogpleader.com
- Legalbites.in
- Wikipedia
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