A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha also asked Attorney General (AG) R Venkataramani to furnish details on whether there is any data or study undertaken regarding the impact and pain caused during death by hanging and whether it is the most suitable method available today.
“Mr. AG, come back to us and we should have better data before us on the impact of death by hanging, pain caused and the period taken for such death to take place, availability of resources to effectuate such hanging by death. And is today’s science suggesting that this is best method today or is there another method which is more suitable to uphold human dignity,” the Court said.
If the government has not undertaken such a study, then the Supreme Court suggested that it can form a committee to conduct a study into the same.
“If Centre has not done this study, then we can form a committee which can have experts from two national law universities like NLU Delhi, Bangalore or Hyderabad, some doctors from AIIMS, distinguished people across the country and some scientific experts,” the Court stated.
We may still come to the conclusion that death by hanging is appropriate but we need to be aided by a study, the bench added.
The top court was hearing a plea field by advocate Rishi Malhotra to do away with death by hanging and to instead adopt comparatively painless methods like injection or electrocution.
The plea said the Law Commission in its 187th Report had noted that, there was a significant increase in the number of countries where hanging has been abolished and substituted by electrocution, shooting or lethal injection as the method of execution.
“It had categorically opined that hanging is undoubtedly accompanied by intense physical torture and pain,” the plea said.
Source: Barandbench
