Death Sentencing In India: A Time To Frame The Guideline

Subhajit Bhattacharjee, Assistant Professor of Law, Department of Law, University of North Bengal

ABSTRACT

It is undeniable that there is a new wave of thinking in sentencing a convict of capital punishment, hitherto unexplored, which form a key pillar of judicial work. The intervention of the Supreme Court of India in, hopefully formulating and framing guidelines around the incorporation of mitigating circumstances, analyzing and considering the psychological factors of the convict/ prisoner at the time of sentencing. As a result, the responsibility of the sentencing and conforming courts will now be greater in ensuring that no death sentence is manually awarded or routinely confirmed. So thereby the entire jurisprudence around death sentence have to be reformulated on the guidelines of fairness, equity and international standards.

Keywords: Capital punishment, Supreme Court, Trial Courts, Mitigating Circumstances, Convict.