Is it time to abolish the death penalty? (Capital punishment in India)

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Is it time to abolish the death penalty? (Capital punishment in India)

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• FIRST PERSPECTIVE: YES, it should be abolished.

1. Illogical: How does killing a person show that the killing (murder) is wrong?
2. Civilised world: Most of it has abolished it, and it serves no purpose in India too. It does not deter anyone more than life imprisonment.
3. Certainty and swiftness of punishment: People will be scared only if judgments come fast.
4. Error-ridden: From 2000-2015, the SC gave 60 death sentences, and accepted later that it erred in 25% (15 cases). Do you trust such a system for capital punishment? Who collects evidence - our police force ridden with corruption?
5. Poor and marginalised targeted: The death penalty unfairly gets them more, and those without capital get the punishment.
6. Executions: 5.2 per 1 lakh murders is the rate of death sentence. The personal beliefs of judges played a role.
7. Presidents: Dr Kalam refused to reject mercy petitions, while some others did it easily.
8. Taxpayer's money: Abolishing this penalty will help save money.
9. Why not life imprisonment? If in most cases it is good, why not the fraction that got death? Punishment should not imitate crime.
10. Lowest murder rate: Except in 1963, today our murder rate is the lowest. It is not due to the death penalty. A more equal sex ratio may be responsible for it.
11. Nothing muscular: The State doesn't gain anything by the display of toughness.

• SECOND PERSPECTIVE: NO, it must remain.

1. Three criticisms of death penalty: Critics claim arbitrariness, irreversibility and human rights as main objections. But death penalty is proper on all three.
2. How: Its constitutionality is upheld in India, as well as the US. It is not uncivil polity.
3. Law Commission reports: The 35th report wanted to see  its impact on a new republic, and the 262nd report too did not recommend abolition. Exceptions came in cases of terror.
4. Problematic neighbourhood: European Union is a supranational peaceful conglomerate, and Scandinavian nations have a peaceful neighbourhood. India has none of it.
5. Impact on innocents: A punishment can be judged not by its impact on criminals, but on the still innocent.
6. More than retributive justice: Death penalty goes beyond it, and reflects society's abhorrence for some acts to the extent it is willing to take away the "right to life".
7. Rarest of rare: It is not arbitrary or irreversibly repugnant. A judicial process deals with it, and rarest-of-rare test ensures it. Only 4 people have been executed in past 13 years.

• THIRD PERSPECTIVE: IT'S COMPLICATED.

1. Questioned: The moral foundation of killing is constantly questioned. The UNGA in 2007 passed a resolution asking the 59 nations still having it for a moratorium.
2. The bad cases: It is frequently used in Iran, China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the US.
3. Political parties' stand: Very few have actually opposed it. Dr. Ambedkar opposed it on grounds of non-violence.
4. Eye for an eye: The 2012 gang rape case got new sections added to the IPC enabling death penalty. 2018 saw death penalty added for rape of minors.
5. 1962 and 1991: Law Commission in 1962 supported it (India's peculiar circumstances) and SC in 1991 said it defended law and order.
6. Deterrence to retribution: Everything is cited!
7. More scepticism now: Judicial administration of it attracts more questions now. The "rarest of rare" threshold came in 1980 in "Bachan Singh v. State of Punjab", when SC said judges cannot be bloodthirsty.
8. Death Penalty India Report: The NLU Delhi report showed flaws in criminal procedure and justice system, and most pronounced in death penalty cases. The marginalised are more subjected to it. Delays make it more unbearable.
9. Strange: Even for non-homicide cases, India has the death penalty. (e.g. kidnapping for ransom)
10. Populism: Political will is bound by populism. Sooner or later, the SC will have to see if lack of political will is reason enough to override the right to life.

• Summary : The question being addressed is "should the death penalty be abolished?"

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