Death Penalty or Capital Punishment is a government sanctioned order whereby a person is sentenced to death for the commission of any heinous offence. It is given in the rarest of rare cases. Death Penalty aims to make the convict as well as the whole society realise the magnitude of the wrong that has happened.

The pardoning principle has been recognized as an act of grace and humanity in every civilized nation. These remedies are as follows:

1.The award of the death sentence by a trial court must be reaffirmed by a High Court under section 366 (1)of CrPC to make it final.

2.Article 137 of the Indian Constitution provides the power to the Supreme Court to review the orders and judgments passed by it. The review petition can be filed under Section 114 and Order 47 of the CPC.

3.After the dismissal of the review petition, the person can file curative petition. Petitioners can file curative petitions in case of gross violation of principles of natural justice. The curative petition will be sent to the three most senior judges and the bench of judges who passed the judgment. If the majority of them find substance in the petition, then the matter would be sent to the same bench of judges.

4.Mercy Petition can be filed by the convicts. It is to be done within a period of seven days from the date when the Superintendent of jail informs the convicted person of the dismissal of the petition.

5.Article 72 and 161 of the Indian Constitution provides the power to pardon the petitioner to the President and the Governor, respectively.

The court must set a specified period of time within which the judgment of death penalty must be executed. The unnecessary prolonging of the same would tantamount to a great magnitude of emotionally traumatic, financially taxing and socially saddening. The very basic improvement that needs to be done is the uniformity of temporal provision provided to the convicts adjudged to get death penalty. Fast track courts should be more functional, and the element of transparency should be present.

There is a need to speed up the cases having the gravity of involving death penalty. There are many debates going on regarding the constitutionality of the same. However, the reasons why the community as a whole does not endorse the humanistic approach reflected in death-sentence-in-no-case doctrine are not far to seek.

The Supreme Court of India, in the case of Macchi Singh v. State of Punjab (1983), stated the need for fast execution of death penalty. In the first place, the very humanistic edifice is constructed on the foundation of “reverence for life” principle. When a member of the community violates this very principle by killing another member, the society may not feel itself bound by the shackles of this doctrine.

Secondly, it has to be realised that every member of the community should able to live with safety without his or her own life being endangered because of the protective arm of the community and on account of the rule of law enforced by it. The very existence of the rule of law and the fear of the law operates as a deterrent for criminals. Every member of the community owes a debt to the community for this protection.

Aishwarya Says:

I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.

If you are interested in participating in the same, do let me know.

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