Sir,
As per news item D.E. Dated January 22,2014 the supreme court has commuted the death sentence of 15 death row convicts to life imprisonment. The unique feature of the decision was that the mercy petitions of all these convicts were already rejected by the president of India. Hence this is a landmark judgement in the judicial history of India. The petition was filed by the convicts on the grounds of delay in deciding the mercy petition and mental health of the convicts which was accepted by the apex court. This is also a reversal of the Supreme Court’s own decision awarded in the case of Devinderpal Singh Bhullar the killer of Sardar Beant Singh the then Chief Minister of Punjab. In this case the court gave its ruling that the delay in execution cannot be a ground for commutation of the death penalty.
The death penalty has always remained a controversial subject. On one hand it involves the rule of law and on the other hand it involves the life of a human being. The votaries of the death sentence are of the opinion that a person who takes the life of another person has no right to live on this earth. It is based on the principle “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”But this principal does not have an acceptance in a civilised society.
The law of jurisprudence states that if a person has done a wrong to the society he should be punished for that wrong and kept in confinement in a prison and given a chance to improve himself. But execution of the death penalty is not a punishment to the convict and is instead his removal from the world.
If the offender has taken away the life of a person, the society has also taken his life through the legal process. Some legal experts have also termed it as a judicial murder. The world opinion is turning against the death penalty as this is cruel and barbaric in nature and also violates the right to life. It is also arbitrary as for as the disposal of mercy petitions are concerned as the convicts of the same gravity of crime do not get the same treatment always. As many as two third of the countries of the world have already abolished or put a moratorium on the executions. Hence our country should also do away with this inhuman and cruel system.
Yours etc…..
D.R.Bhagat
255/5 Ekta Vihar Kunjwani
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