A fatal margin of error (Death penalty in India)

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 A fatal margin of error (Death penalty in India)

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• Khushwinder Singh case : In March 2019, an SC bench (headed by J Sikri) announced the death penalty in the Khushwinder Singh v. State of Punjab case. In 2013, he was found guilty of killing six of his wife's relatives, to commit theft.
• Problem with the judgment :

1. It is in contrast to the 9 cases decided by benches headed by J Sikri (6 commutations and 8 acquittals).
2. In all those cases, the Court's duty to conduct an effective hearing was emphasised upon.
3. Factors to be considered were - good conduct, age, social / emotional / mental condition, possibility of reform

• Nothing for Singh : The bench only said that "the defence lawyer for Singh is not able to point out any mitigating circumstances". That deficiency is not that of Singh, but of the lawyer or the process!
• Another similar case, different outcome : In the M.A.Antony v. State of Kerala case too, six relatives were murdered by the accused. There, the SC commutated the death sentence as there was no evidence to show that he was a hardened criminal or beyond reform. That wasn't done in the case of Khushwinder Singh.
• Irreversibility of death sentence : The irreversibility of death sentence changes the jurisprudence attached to it. Normally we accept that a judge (in an adversarial proceeding) cannot go on a truth finding mission beyond what's shown to him in Court. But in death penalty cases, Courts have to elicit the maximum possible information possible.
• The Bachan Singh case : The Bachan Singh v. State of Punjab case made no distinction between roles and responsiblity of Appellate Courts. So all Courts are responsible to extract maximum information, as per instructions in this case.
• Quality of legal representation : Khushwinder Singh became a victim of poor quality of legal representation, and the Court did not do much to find more mitigating factors.
• J Kurian Joseph : In his judgment in the Chhannu Lal Verma v. State of Chhattisgarh case, he asked for a gradual abolition of the death penalty. Since our criminal justice system is full of limitations, and since we realise that in a fair system death penalty cannot exist, it should be done away with. 
• Summary : The death penalty in India is not being handed out in an even manner, with the quality of representation being a major limiting factor.

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