Govt not ready to evolve': Supreme Court on Centre opposing lethal injection as mode of execution for convicts

New Delhi: The problem is that the government is not ready to evolve, the Supreme Court observed on Wednesday after the Centre said it may not be "very feasible" to give the option to death row convicts to choose lethal injection as a mode of execution.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta was hearing a plea seeking removal of the present mode of execution of death row convicts by hanging from the statute.

Senior advocate Rishi Malhotra, who has filed the petition, said at least an option should be given to a condemned prisoner as to whether he wanted hanging or lethal injection as a mode of execution.

"I will demonstrate that the best way is lethal injection because 49 out of 50 states in the USA have adopted lethal injection," Malhotra said.

He said execution by administering lethal injection was quick, humane and decent as compared to hanging which was cruel and barbaric as the body lies lingering on the rope for around 40 minutes.

Justice Mehta suggested the counsel representing the Centre to advise the government on Malhotra's proposition regarding providing an option to the death row convict.

The Centre's counsel said, "This is also addressed in the counter that this may not be very feasible to give an option".

Justice Mehta observed, "The problem is that the government is not ready to evolve over the period of time... Things have changed over a period of time".

The Centre's counsel submitted that it was said in the counter-affidavit that it was a policy decision and the government can take a call on that.

The lawyer referred to the apex court's May 2023 order passed in the matter.

In that order, the bench had noted Attorney General R Venkataramani's submission that the government was considering the appointment of a committee to review the issues sought to be raised in the matter.

The Centre's counsel said they would seek instructions from the government as to what has happened with regard to the committee.

The bench posted the matter for further hearing on November 11.

In March 2023, the apex court had said it may consider setting up a committee of experts to examine whether execution of death row convicts by hanging was proportionate and less painful and sought "better data" from the Centre on issues pertaining to the mode of execution.

The bench, however, had made clear that it cannot direct the legislature to adopt a particular mode of sentencing condemned convicts.

Malhotra had filed the PIL in 2017 seeking abolition of the present practice of executing a death row convict by hanging and replacing it with less painful methods such as "intravenous lethal injection, shooting, electrocution or gas chamber".

In 2018, the Centre strongly supported a legal provision that a death row convict would only be hanged to death and had told the bench that the other modes of execution like lethal injections and firing were not less painful.

The counter affidavit, filed by the joint secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, had said that death by hanging was "quick, simple" and free from anything that would "unnecessarily sharpen the poignancy of the prisoner".

The affidavit was filed in response to the PIL which referred to the 187th Report of the Law Commission advocating the removal of the present mode of execution from the statute.