Vivek K Singri, BBA LLB, PES University (Established under Karnataka Act No. 16 of 2013)
ABSTARCT
Death sentence as a kind of governmental punishment used in India, it raises certain key concerns with regards to Human Rights & its related aspects. But as per the Parliament narratives, only for two types of crimes first is Treason/ betrayal to the country and heinous murders the courts can be allow to pronounce the death sentence, the justification given to this is “I thus forfeit my own right to life and liberty if I take away another person's rights to these things. 1” . Undoubtedly due all of this the aspects of Death Penalty has become a highly disputed issues in the field of human rights, it has gave arise to numerous debates with respect to its ethical, legal, and societal consequences. The death sentence sometimes represents to be as an infringement of basic human rights, including the right to life, the right to be free from torture or harsh, inhuman, and degrading punishment, and the ideas of equality and non-discrimination is under thorough examination in this paper. India is a party to the International covenant on civil and political rights (1966)2, yet it isn't clear about the India's stances as to how really it has been using death sentence under different pretexts in deciding or defining what amounts to “Rarest of Rarest” leading to ambiguity. Although most leaders such as Gandhi, along with other prominent members were also somewhat uneasy about the death sentence, it was adopted and given a prominent place within the Criminal laws of the country even in 21st century. Using international legal systems such the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)3, the paper investigates the moral and legal objections to the death sentence in India. The paper also tries to addresses worldwide habits towards abolition, can India also take similar stance or any other aspects are available to resolve the matter of Death penalty as is also been having other key issues such as the irreversibility of erroneous convictions, and the unequal application of the death sentence on vulnerable populations. In the end, the study advocates for whether India shall prohibit the death sentence as a means of guaranteeing justice and respect of human dignity or shall keep the practice of Death Penalty as its Cultural; legal and criminology aspects differ from the other countries?
Keywords: Death Penalty, Human Rights Violation.
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