SC on plea against mode of execution

The Supreme Court has issued a notice to centre seeking its response on the PIL challenging the legal provision that a row death convict would be hanged to death.

The plea is filed before a bench comprising of Chief Justice Dipak Mishra and Justice A M Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud and said that Article 21 (Right to Life) of the Constitution also includes the right of a condemned prisoner to have dignified mode of execution so that the death becomes less painful. The plea has also challenged the constitutional validity of the provision of the Criminal procedure code which states that the mode of execution of death penalty would be by hanging by the neck.

The apex court has sought the government's response within three weeks on the same. The present plea has been filed by Rishi Malhotra in his personal capacity. He has also referred to various judgments by the Supreme Court in which the practice of hanging a death row convict has been assailed.

The court has agreed to hear the petition after 34 years it upheld the validity of the law of hanging by the neck.

The Code of Criminal Procedure says, “ when any person is sentenced to death, the sentence shall direct that the person be hanged by the neck till the person is dead.”

The court also stated that the method of executing death sentence through lethal injections had remained largely untried. Like for instance, the United States, lethal injections are used to execute death penalties.