Centre To Form Expert Committee To Decide If Hanging Is Most Suitable, Painless Method For Death Penalty: Report

Advocate Rishi Malhotra had filed a plea to remove the practice of death by hanging, and adopt alternate methods such as lethal injection or electrocution instead. The Supreme Court was hearing this.

The Centre informed the Supreme Court on Tuesday, May 2, that the former is in the process of forming an expert committee to decide whether hanging is the most suitable and painless method to implement the death penalty, Bar and Bench, an online portal for Indian legal news, reported. Quoting Attorney General  R Venkataramani, a report by Bar and Bench said that he proposed the formation of the committee, and that names for it are being gathered now. 

R Venkataramani said this to Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice JB Pardiwala, according to the report. 

When will the matter be heard in the Supreme Court?

The matter of the expert committee being formed will be heard in the Supreme Court in the second week of July, the report said. 

What plea was the Supreme Court hearing?

Advocate Rishi Malhotra had filed a plea to remove the practice of death by hanging, and adopt alternate methods such as lethal injection or electrocution instead. The Supreme Court was hearing this plea on Tuesday. Malhotra said that methods such as legal injection and electrocution to implement the death penalty are painless compared to hanging. 

The Law Commission had noted in its 187th Report that the number of countries that abolished hanging and replaced the method with  electrocution, lethal injection or shooting had increased, the plea stated. 

According to the Bar and Bench report, the plea said that the Law Commission report had "categorically opined that hanging is undoubtedly accompanied by intense physical torture and pain". 

What did the Supreme Court ask the Centre to do during a previous hearing?

The Supreme Court, during a previous hearing, asked the Central Government to provide details on if there is any study or data on the impact and pain caused during death by hanging, and any study or data that explores whether death by hanging is the most suitable method for the death penalty.

"If Central government has not done this study, then we can form a committee which can have experts from national law universities like NLU Delhi, Bangalore or Hyderabad, some doctors from AIIMS, distinguished people across the country and some scientific experts," the report quoted the Supreme Court as saying.