SC pulls up Centre over reluctance to consider lethal injection as execution option
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday criticised the Centre’s hesitation to consider alternative methods of execution, remarking that “the problem is that the government is not ready to evolve.” The observation came after the Union government told the court that allowing death row convicts to choose lethal injection as an alternative to hanging may not be “very feasible”.
A bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta was hearing a petition filed by senior advocate Rishi Malhotra seeking the removal of hanging as the sole mode of execution under Indian law. Malhotra argued that prisoners sentenced to death should at least be given the option to choose between hanging and lethal injection.
“I will demonstrate that the best way is lethal injection because 49 out of 50 states in the USA have adopted lethal injection,” Malhotra told the bench, contending that it is quicker and more humane compared to hanging, which he described as “cruel and barbaric” since “the body lies lingering on the rope for around 40 minutes.”
Justice Mehta asked the Centre’s counsel to advise the government on the proposal to provide an option to convicts. The counsel responded, “This is also addressed in the counter that this may not be very feasible to give an option.” Justice Mehta then remarked, “Things have changed over a period of time... the problem is that the government is not ready to evolve.”
The Centre maintained that the issue involved a policy decision, and the government would take a call on it. Referring to the court’s May 2023 order, the government’s counsel said they would seek instructions on the status of a committee that was reportedly being considered to examine the matter.
In that earlier order, the bench had recorded Attorney General R Venkataramani’s statement that the government was contemplating setting up a committee to review concerns regarding the mode of execution. The case will be heard next on November 11.
The discussion follows the Supreme Court’s March 2023 observation that it might consider forming an expert committee to determine whether hanging is the most proportionate and least painful method of execution. At that time, the bench had sought “better data” from the Centre on the subject while clarifying that it could not direct the legislature to adopt a specific sentencing method. Malhotra’s public interest litigation, filed in 2017, had urged the abolition of hanging in favour of less painful alternatives such as “intravenous lethal injection, shooting, electrocution or gas chamber.” However, in 2018, the Centre had defended hanging as the sole legal method, asserting that other forms of execution were not necessarily less painful.
The Ministry of Home Affairs, in its counter affidavit, described hanging as “quick, simple” and free from “anything that would unnecessarily sharpen the poignancy of the prisoner.” The affidavit also referenced the 187th Report of the Law Commission, which had recommended reviewing the existing practice of execution in India.
