{"id":36112,"date":"2025-01-24T18:56:35","date_gmt":"2025-01-24T13:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=36112"},"modified":"2025-01-24T18:56:36","modified_gmt":"2025-01-24T13:26:36","slug":"rarest-of-rare-doctrine-death-penalty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/24-01-2025\/rarest-of-rare-doctrine-death-penalty","title":{"rendered":"Rarest of Rare Doctrine in Death Penalty"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/Governance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The recent conviction of Sanjay Roy for the rape and murder of doctor at <strong>Kolkata&#8217;s R G Kar Medical College and Hospital<\/strong> has sparked widespread public outrage.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>While the court sentenced Roy to life imprisonment, many are demanding the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/editorial-analysis\/02-03-2024\/indias-burgeoning-death-penalty-crisis\">death penalty.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Death Penalty in India: Current Statistics<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The <strong>death penalty or capital punishment,<\/strong> is the most severe form of legal penalty in India.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>According to a report by <strong>Project 39A,<\/strong><strong>120 death sentences were awarded by trial courts in 2023<\/strong> across the country, while <strong>561 inmates remained on death row<\/strong> by the end of the year.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It marks the <strong>highest <\/strong>number of convicts on <strong>death row in nearly two decades<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It also noted that only one death sentence was confirmed in 2023, making it the year with the lowest rate of death sentence confirmations by appellate courts since 2000.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Legal Framework<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS):<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Section 103 (Section 302 in IPC)<\/strong>: Murder;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Section 71 (Section 376A in IPC)<\/strong>: Rape leading to death or resulting in a persistent vegetative state;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Section 147 (Section 121 in IPC):<\/strong> Waging war against the Government of India;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Arguments in Favour<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In the <strong>35th Report of Law Commission of India (1962)<\/strong> favoured retaining the death penalty.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Acting as a deterrent, <\/strong>and ensures justice for victims by proportionately punishing the offender.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Maintaining law and order.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Arguments Against Death Penalty<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Low Imposition Rates:<\/strong> Supreme Court has affirmed the death penalty in only 7 cases over the past 6 years, indicating limited utility.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Arbitrariness:<\/strong> Sentencing can be inconsistent due to subjective judgments of individual judges.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Inhumane Nature: <\/strong>Inflicts severe mental anguish on convicts and their families, violating principles of human dignity.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Procedural Flaws:<\/strong> Lack of rigor and transparency in sentencing processes undermines fairness.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Economic Disparity: <\/strong>74.1% of death row inmates come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, highlighting systemic inequities.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Global Trends:<\/strong> Over two-thirds of countries globally have abolished the death penalty in law or practice (Amnesty Report, 2021).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Key Reforms and Guidelines (After Bachan Singh v. State of Punjab Case, 1980)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>\u2018Rarest of Rare\u2019 Doctrine:<\/strong> The <strong>Supreme Court<\/strong> mandates that the death penalty can <strong>only be imposed in exceptional cases<\/strong> where the crime is so heinous that no other punishment would suffice.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Aggravating and Mitigating Factors:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Aggravating factors<\/strong> include the brutality of the crime, the impact on the victim and society, and the criminal&#8217;s prior record.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Mitigating factors<\/strong> include the accused&#8217;s age, mental health, and potential for rehabilitation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Review and Appeal Process:<\/strong> It includes <strong>multiple levels of review and appeal<\/strong> to ensure that the decision is fair and just.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It includes the possibility of <strong>mercy petitions to the President or Governor, <\/strong>depending on the jurisdiction.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Procedural Safeguards:<\/strong> It includes ensuring that the accused has access to legal representation and a fair trial.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>MHA Guidelines:<\/strong> The <strong>Ministry of Home Affairs<\/strong> has issued guidelines to safeguard the interests of death row convicts, emphasizing <strong>a minimum period of 14 days<\/strong> between the communication of the death sentence and its execution.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Recent Developments<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In November 2024, reports indicated that <strong>India plans to reform its criminal sentencing norms<\/strong> to address criticisms of arbitrary punishments.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It aims to introduce <strong>a grading system<\/strong> to standardize sentencing, aligning more closely with systems in countries like Britain, Canada, and New Zealand.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/opinion\/columns\/clamour-for-death-penalty-for-r-g-kar-convict-is-self-defeating-9796016\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source: IE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The recent conviction of Sanjay Roy for the rape and murder of doctor at Kolkata&#8217;s R G Kar Medical College and Hospital has sparked widespread public outrage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36112"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36113,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36112\/revisions\/36113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}