Nariman replied in the affirmative on being asked whether

the Indian state has diminished itself by failing to live up to this minimum standard of expectation to allow a dying man to bid farewell to his wife and son. He, however, said it was not done consciously. "Yes, but not consciously. But nonetheless that would be a legitimate inference to draw and therefore some minion of the government who has to be told that there is something wrong with our whole system of educating people in the humane aspects of life," he said. He said the Home Minister could not be directly but indirectly be held responsible for the action as it was "absolutely callous". "They have just not done their home work. As in many other things they do not do their homework. It is very unfortunate. There is something wrong with the whole administrative set up," Nariman said, adding that the manner in which Afzal's execution was implemented has embarrassed India. Nariman said he would be "greatly embarrassed" if he was in the government. "I wouldn't be able to answer truthfully," he said and shared the view that it was a "blot on our democracy and our sense of justice system". Asked whether time has come to abolish death penalty, he said, "Judges are not agreed on it, people are not agreed on it, Presidents are not agreed on it. It is a very doubtful situation." "My position is that in India, it is perhaps better to leave the death penalty as it is under the present conditions," he said referring to the principle of 'rarest of rare' test. "Rarest of rare, whatever that may mean and leave that to... It may mean one judge saying it is rarest of rare while another says it is not. But let us leave it as it is. As we don't have about 3,000 executions a year as people have in other countries," he further said. Nariman said there was a need to make life sentence mean the whole life by codifying it by way of legislation so that no state has the authority to get the convict out. "The prerogative of mercy which is also a constitutional prerogative is also removed by some means, which it can be done if you want to do it. It can only be under those circumstances and not otherwise (that death penalty be abolished)," he said. "There should be a guarantee he (convict) will not come out," he said.