Law Commission recommends abolition of death penalty for all crimes except terrorism

NEW DELHI: Holding that the “death row phenomenon has become an unfortunate and distinctive feature of the death penalty apparatus in India,” the Law Commission has recommended abolition of death penalty.

The commission headed by Justice (Retd) AP Shah has concluded that “death penalty be abolished for all crimes other than terrorism and waging war.”

But the panel’s report failed to find favour with some of members who submitted dissenting notes.

Justice (Retd) Usha Mehra, PK Malhotra, law secretary, and Dr Sanjay Singh, secretary in the Legislative Department, chose not to sign the report, which was sent to the law ministry today.

The panel has also advocated an effective system to ensure witness protection and “police reforms.” While retribution has an important role to play in punishment, it “cannot be reduced to vengeance,” the commission said.

Referring to the “arbitrariness” that exists in deciding such cases, the report said, “There exists no principled method to remove such arbitrariness from capital sentencing.

A rigid, standardisation or categorisation of offences which does not take into account the difference between cases is arbitrary in that it treats different cases on the same footing.”

Meanwhile, in dissenting note, Justice (Retd) Usha Mehra said that “to say that while deciding the case and imposing death sentence there is error in the judgment or it is discriminatory, to my mind, is very general statement.”

She added, “No system of justice can produce results which are 100% certain all the time. Mistakes will be made in any system. Our system of justice rightfully demands a higher standard for death penalty.”

Differing with the commission, Malhotra said that he “strongly” feels that the time is not ripe for abolition of the death penalty. He added that “a convict is to be punished so that it becomes an example for rest of humanity."