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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | One death penalty commuted to life term every day in India -Vishwa Mohan & Himanshi Dhawan

One death penalty commuted to life term every day in India -Vishwa Mohan & Himanshi Dhawan

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published Published on Feb 18, 2013   modified Modified on Feb 18, 2013
-The Times of India

India may be reporting one death penalty every third day but it also commutes one capital punishment to life imprisonment every day - thanks to Delhi which leads the chart by making course correction in old cases.

The national Capital, which reported 71 death penalties during 2001-11, saw 2,462 commutations in that 11-year period - accounting for more than 50% of the total commutations (4,321) in the country. Most of these commutations were related to cases where convicts were awarded death penalties by lower courts before 2001.

Incidentally, Delhi saw more than 99% of the commutations (2,451) in just three years (2005-07) when higher courts went on an over-drive to commute death sentences of convicts to life imprisonment in unprecedented numbers.

The figures - compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau of the home ministry -- indicate that lower courts were more inclined to award death penalty in previous decades which were later overturned by higher courts during 2001-11.

Prashant Bhushan, senior Supreme Court lawyer, said, "I am not aware of the Delhi data but there is no standard for death penalty and it depends on the whims of the judges. Perhaps the judges at the helm of affairs at the time were inclined to give death penalty more readily."

He argued that seeking/awarding death penalty also appeared to be "a cultural thing". For instance, Bhushan said, even among the India Gate protestors (post-December 16 gang rape), there were many who demanded that hanging be made the punishment for rape but the more mature women's organizations opposed this.

Besides Delhi, the commutation of death penalty to life imprisonment was reported from Uttar Pradesh (458) followed by Bihar (343), Jharkhand (300), Maharashtra (175), West Bengal (98), Assam (97), Odisha (68), Madhya Pradesh (62), Uttaranchal (46), Rajasthan (33), Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Chhattisgarh (24 each), Haryana and Kerala (23 each) and Jammu & Kashmir (18).

Suhas Chakma, director of Asian Centre for Human Rights who has been calling for abolition of capital punishment, said, "Death penalty is being awarded by sessions courts very regularly by integrating or misinterpreting 'rarest of rare' doctrine to any situation or circumstance. This is a cause of extreme concern and there needs to be greater awareness on what constitutes rarest of rare."

Asked about the unprecedented high commutation figures in Delhi, a former secretary in the city home department said, "This is a very high number. I can only assume that the trial and lower courts have been generous in handing out death penalty to convicts which have been subsequently overturned by high courts.''

The Times of India, 18 February, 2013, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/One-death-penalty-commuted-to-life-term-every-day-in-India/articleshow/18550680.cms


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