Capital punishment

 Capital punishment is given when a person guilty of heinous crimes particularly that of rape or
murder is sentenced to death.
 In India, the guilty person is hanged till death.
 In developed countries, either they use electrical chair or shooting for the execution.
 Judicial decree for punishment is called death sentence, while the actual process of killing the
person is an execution.
 Capital punishment is qualitatively different from other punishment as it is irreversible and if an
error is committed, there is no way to rectify the error.
 India retains the punishment despite the global move toward abolition of it.
 RECENT EXECUTION OF DEATH PENALTIES IN INDIA

 The execution of death sentence in India is carried out either by hanging until death or being
shot to death.
 Afzal Guru was convicted of conspiracy in 2001 Indian Parliament attack and was sentenced to
death. He was hanged to death on February 9, 2013 at Delhi's Tihar Jail.
 On 3 May 2010, a Mumbai Special Court convicted Mohammad Ajmal Kasab of murder, waging
war on India, possessing explosives, and other charges. Kasab has been sentenced to death for
attacking Mumbai and killing 166 people on 26 November 2008 along with nine Pakistani
terrorists. On 21 November 2012, Kasab was hanged in the Yerwada Central Jail in Pune. The
events of his hanging were shrouded in secrecy.
 Indian Penal Code, 1860

In colonial India, death was prescribed as one of the punishments in the Indian Penal Code,1860
(IPC) and the same was retained after independence

SECTION NATURE OF CRIME

UNDER IPC
120B Punishment of criminal conspiracy
121 Waging, or attempting to wage war, or abetting waging of war,
against the Government of India

132 Abetment of mutiny

194 If an innocent person be convicted and executed in consequence
of such false evidence to procure conviction of capital offence

302,303 Murder
305 Abetment of suicide of child or insane person
364A Kidnapping for ransom
396 Dacoity with murder .If any one of five or more persons, who are
conjointly committing dacoity, commits murder in so committing
dacoity, every one of those persons shall be punished.
OPINIONS IN SUPPORT OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

 Dating back to the earliest civilizations of the world like Mesopotamia and Indus Valley
civilization, we have seen that the informal judicial system had established many stern laws
to punish the guilty. This provided a clear message to all, that anyone interfering with the
rights of the people would be dealt with seriously.
 Another alternative to capital punishment is that of life imprisonment which is 14 years is in
India.
 Serving out capital punishment also helps in spreading fear in the minds of the people. They
will hesitate and restrain from committing crime and infiltrating on the rights of the people.
Having a country that serves out capital punishment definitely brings about faith in the
judicial system of a nation.
 OPINIONS AGAINST CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

 When India was formed and Law was introduced to the land, punishments were dealt out to
kill the criminal in the person not the person. We seem to have forgotten what the motto of
the judiciary system of India says: “Whence Dharma, Thence Victory”, which roughly
translates to restoring order to the society and not eradicating the very person.
 One must deal with the crime and eradicate it from the criminal. Today technology is
leaping in bounds and chains hence why should our judicial system be still plagued with age
old practices.
 Every individual alive has the right to live and only the giver has the right to take it away,
hence no mere immortal shall possess such godly power. We should evolve with time and
our practices should change with time.
 CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN WORLD

 Capital punishment has been used in almost every part of the world, but in the last few
decades many countries have abolished it. Usage of capital punishment is usually broken
into the four categories set out below. Of the 195 independent states that are UN members
or have UN observer status:
 100 (51%) have abolished it.
 7 (4%) retain it for crimes committed in exceptional circumstances (such as in time of war).
 (25%) permit its use for ordinary crimes, but have not used it for at least 10 years and are
believed to have a policy or established practice of not carrying out executions, or it is under
a moratorium.
 40 (20%) maintain the death penalty in both law and practice. These countries make up
approximately 66% of the world's population in 2012.
Why kill the killers when it helps none and nothing, seems to be the belief. To them, capital
punishment is a barbarous measure of no avail that has its place in the annals of history and
not in modern statute books

In June 2004, President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam suggested that Parliament should consider
the abolition of death sentence altogether.
 CONCLUSION

 Capital punishment has been a matter of debate for long now, and across the world public
opinion is, by and large, in favor of abolishing it, as it is increasingly seen as a barbaric measure
to check crime.
 Modern abolitionist jurists are of the view that if killing is wrong, no amount of legal or social
sanction can make it right.
 If it is wrong for a man to kill another man, so it is even for the State to do. Besides, citing
statistics, they argue that capital punishment has had no visible effect as a deterrent and has
utterly failed to bring in a dip in the number of murders, which, according to them, makes
capital punishment completely useless.
“Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart.
The lord gave and the lord has taken away; may the name of the
lord be praised”