Supreme Court Delivers Key Verdict on Death Penalty Method..

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition seeking alternatives to execution by hanging, including the use of lethal injections that could cause comparatively less pain. A bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said the existing method of carrying out the death penalty could be comprehensively reviewed with the assistance of experts. The court emphasized that the dignity of a condemned prisoner must be preserved and that the execution should cause the least possible pain.

The court noted that the petitioner had failed to establish why the 1983 ruling by a three-judge bench, which upheld the constitutional validity of hanging under Section 354(5) of the CrPC, should be reconsidered by a larger bench. However, it clarified that the latest judgment does not prevent a constitutional review in the future if scientific, medical or evidentiary developments undermine the basis of the earlier ruling. The petition, filed in 2017 by senior advocate Rishi Malhotra, had sought consideration of alternatives such as lethal injection, shooting, electrocution and gas chambers.