No proposal to abolish capital punishment: Govt

The government today said it had no proposal to abolish capital punishment awarded to criminals involved in heinous crimes.

Minister of State for Home Mullappally Ramachandran said under the present scheme of sentencing process, death penalty is inflicted only on dangerous incorrigibles for crimes of heinous nature in rarest of rare cases.

"There is no proposal under consideration of the government to abolish capital punishment," he told Lok Sabha in a written reply.

The Minister said since 2007, the UN General Assembly has adopted three resolutions titled "Moratorium on the use of the death penalty". All these resolutions have been passed after a vote.

On November 11, 2010, the non-binding third resolution received 107 votes in favour, 38 votes against and 36 abstentions. As reported by the Ministry of External Affairs, the exact figures of number of countries which have abolished death penalty is not available, he said.

However, Ramachandran said UN Secretary General's report of July 2008 on "Moratoriums on the use of the death penalty" mentioned that 141 countries had abolished the death penalty in law or practice.

Of these, 93 have completely abolished, 10 are abolitionist for ordinary crimes only and further 38 can be considered de facto abolitionist. The remaining 56 countries and territories retain and practice death penalty, he added.