Law Commission may have suggested abolition of death penalty

The Law Commission of India has taken an unexpected view and recommended the abolition of death penalty, media reports say.

A draft report of the commission, circulated among its members, is said to have favoured speedy abolition of death penalty, with the exception of terror-related cases. The final report is likely to be given to the government by next week.

In 1962, the Law Commission had recommended retention of death penalty. India is one of the 59 countries in the world where capital punishment is still awarded by courts. Human rights activists have been demanding its abolition, and the cries for this intensified after the recent hanging of Yakub Memon, the sole convict to be executed in the Mumbai blasts case of 1993.

Last year, the Supreme Court had asked the Commission to give a report on death penalty. The terms of the Commission, headed by retired justice AP Shah, ends on August 31.

“The death penalty has no demonstrated utility in deterring crime or incapacitating offenders, any more than its alternative — imprisonment for life,” The Indian Express quoted the draft report as having apparently said.

The report is also said to have suggested that application of death penalty “continues to be remain excessive, arbitrary, unprincipled, judge-centric and prone to error”.