Capital Punishment

Every few years the headlines are the same: a court has sentenced someone to be hanged, and the country splits into two. One side said some crimes are so terrible that nothing less will do. The other said the State should never take a life, and that mistakes cannot be undone. Both sides are arguing about a single word in section 4 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita: death. Your job as a law student is to know when the law allows it, what limits the courts have placed on it, and what procedure must be followed before anyone is executed.

In two minutes

Death is the first punishment listed in BNS s.4 and is prescribed for a small set of the gravest offences, but the Supreme Court restricts it to the rarest of rare cases, the court must record special reasons (BNSS s.393(3)), every death sentence needs High Court confirmation (BNSS s.407), and the convict has the right to a mercy petition under Articles 72 and 161.

The rest of this chapter

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