The Law Commission of India on Monday recommended abolishing the death penalty for all crimes other than terrorism-related ones and expressed hope that the movement towards absolute abolition will be “swift and irreversible”.
The recommendation by the nine-member panel was, however, not unanimous. Three full-time members — Justice (retd) Usha Mehra, Law Secretary PK Malhotra and Legislative Secretary Sanjay Singh — expressed dissent.
In its report, the Commission said the administration of death penalty even within the restrictive “rarest of rare” doctrine is constitutionally unsustainable. “The death penalty does not serve the penological goal of deterrence any more than life imprisonment,” it said in its report.
In fact, it said, while there is no justification for treating terrorism differently from other crimes, concerns are often raised that abolition of death penalty for terrorism related offences and waging war will affect security. “However, given the concerns raised by the lawmakers, the Commission does not see any reason to wait any longer to take the first steps towards abolition of the death penalty for all offences other than terrorism related offences,” it added.
Arbitrary sentencing The report also pointed out that there have been numerous occasions where the Supreme Court has expressed concerns about arbitrary sentencing in death penalty cases. It also said no principled method exists to remove such arbitrariness from capital sentencing. The safeguards in the law have not really provided a “constitutionally secure environment” for the administration of death penalty, it added.
The Law Commission also said it does not want to commit to a particular approach to abolition. There are many options, from moratorium to a full-fledged abolition Bill, it observed.
“All it says is that such a method of abolition should be compatible with the fundamental value of achieving swift and irreversible absolute abolition,” an official statement added.