"This implies that on an average one convict is awarded

death penalty in less than every third day in India. The rarest of rare case doctrine for application of death penalty has become routine. Death penalty is no longer the exception but the rule," said Suhas Chakma, ACHR Director and Coordinator of the National Campaign for Abolition of Death Penalty in India. "Thousands of convicts remain on the death row. This is established by the fact that during 2001 to 2011, sentences for 4,321 persons were commuted from death penalty to life imprisonment with the highest number of commutation in Delhi (2,462)," Chakma said in his report. This was followed by Uttar Pradesh (458), Bihar (343), Jharkhand (300), Maharashtra (175), West Bengal (98), Assam (97), Odisha (68), Madhya Pradesh (62), Uttarakhand (46), Rajasthan (33), Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Chhattisgarh (24 each), Haryana and Kerala (23 each), Jammu and Kashmir (18). The ACHR called for abolition of death penalty, arguing that "the execution of Nathuram Godse for assassinating Mahatma Gandhi has not acted as a deterrent against assassination of many prominent political leaders, including former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi." "There is no scientific or empirical basis to suggest that death penalty acts as a deterrent against any crime," asserted Chakma, whose ACHR has Special Consultative Status with the UN-Economic and Social Council. "Though no execution had been carried out since the hanging of Dhananjoy Chatterjee on August 14, 2004, the number of murder cases have been reducing," he said. According to the National Crimes Record Bureau, in 2001 a total of 36,202 murder cases were registered in India. Though the population of India increased from 1.028 billion in 2001 to 1.21 billion in 2011, the murder cases indeed reduced to 34,305 in 2011.