SC:Death offenders should die in peace and not in pain, it says.
The Supreme Court on Friday observed that government should look to the “vibrant progress” made in contemporary science to approve painless methods of causing death.
A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra gave notice to the government and ordered it to take action to the issue in the next three weeks.
“Governing bodies can think of some other ways by which an offender, who under law has to face death sentence, should die in peace and not in pain. It has been said since centuries that nothing can be likened with painless death,” Chief Justice Misra observed in the order.
The court made clear that it was not questioning the constitutionality of the death penalty, which has been well settled by the Supreme Court, including in the Bachan Singh case reported in 1983.
The court said Section 354 — which consents death by hanging — of the Code of Criminal Procedure has already been supported.
However, the provision of hanging to death may be re-considered as “the Constitution of India is an organic and sympathetic document which identifies the sanctity of flexibility of law as situations change with the change of time.”
The fundamental right to life and dignity preserved under Article 21 of the Constitution also has meaning- the right to die with dignity, the court said.
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