Mohammad Taha Yadi, BBA. LL.B., Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad
I. Introduction
Capital punishment is a type of punishment where the convict is killed according to the due process of law. According to the Indian Penal Code, 11 sections are about capital offences like sec 121 says that Treason can be charged with capital punishment. Waging war against the Indian Government is also a capital offence. The remaining sections of IPC also talk about such capital offences & their punishment is prescribed therein. Capital punishment is not only given for the offences which are therein IPC, but there are other various laws which can also be charged with capital punishment like The Army Act of 1950, The Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act of 1987, The Unlawful Activities Prevention Act of 1967 etc. Every punishment in the world has an idea behind it, so is capital punishment. There are two beliefs behind this punishment first is that the person who commits a crime for which capital punishment is given should suffer; the second belief is that capital punishment should act as a deterrence for crimes & people should step back from committing such crimes. Capital punishment is not new for humanity; it has been sanctioned from ancient times in the world. In ancient Greece, under the laws of Draco in the 7th century BCE, capital punishment was given for the crimes like intentionally killing a person, deliberately setting fire to someone’s property, rape, betraying one’s own country for throwing away the government or sovereign. Every country today has executed the person once in its ancient history. Plato said that capital punishment should only be given for habitual persons but not for every person who commits a crime, but this was not followed. Capital punishment is not given for ordinary crimes but only for such crimes as the grave, horrific, detestable against society or humanity. There are pros & cons of capital punishment; it would act as a safety measure for the people because the criminals would have fear in their minds due to such higher punishment. By capital punishment, the person who breaks the law & commits such grave crimes as murder, rape, treason etc., will be punished. However, statistical data & reports from sources indicate that capital punishment is not acting as a deterrent; hence more & more crimes are taking place. Further capital punishment means the end of life & the criminal will not have any extra chances for repenting for his/her act; they can be rehabilitated etc., but capital punishment takes all the convict's rights. Capital punishment becomes more dangerous when so-called criminal by the court turns out to be innocent. So many developed countries of the world have already abolished capital punishment since they think it is a gross violation of human rights & shows disrespect to civilized societal ideas. In the International arena, various resolutions have been passed by the United Nations & other international organizations to stop brutal capital punishment, like ICCPR, CRC, CIDT etc. It cannot be said that the countries which abolished the death penalty, in that nation crime is low, there are countries where capital punishment is retained & it is acting as a deterrent for the crimes. In India, the rarest of the rare case doctrine is followed & there are guidelines issued by the apex court & two questions that the bench should confirm before imposing capital punishment. Capital punishment is valid according to the Indian Constitution, in article 21 of the Indian Constitution, which talks about protection of life & personal liberty, right to life can be deprived of it, if is done according to due process of law & hence the Supreme Court in Jagmohan Singh v State of UP said that capital punishment is in line with constitutional powers. Whether capital punishment is effective or not, it has various other circumstances which guide it, like the correct implementation of the law, faster judicial process, awareness of law etc. Capital punishment is considered very barbaric & this punishment is not new to the world; all the existing nations have imposed executions. If a person hurts the eye of others, then the victim cannot hurt the offender's eye; if this principle of hurting an eye for another eye is followed, then there will be a situation someday & no person would be having an eye to see & this is the same case with capital punishment. If a person commits rape then, the person, in turn, is not raped, so capital punishment would be like killing for killing, but it is judicial murder. Hence there are more disadvantages of capital punishment for India & it should abolish capital punishment.
