Since 2013, India has seen a consistent legislative expansion of the death penalty for sexual offences including the introduction of the death penalty for non-homicidal child rape.
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On 27 March 2023, 28 years after Niranaram Chetanram Chaudhary alias Narayan was incarcerated for the murder of seven people, the Supreme Court declared that he was a child of 12 at the time of the crime, which meant the maximum sentence he should have received under Indian law when convicted in February 1998 was three years. Narayan spent 25 of his incarceration on death row before release.
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The search for the “least painful method” is ultimately an endeavour in how much cruelty we are willing to tolerate. It is about our collective willingness to inflict cruelty on an individual while wanting to appear otherwise.
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The last few days have been interesting for the death penalty in India. The Supreme Court (SC) commuted the death sentence of Sundar alias Sundarajan because the possibility of his reform could not be ruled out; it ordered the release of a death row prisoner Narayan Chaudhary because he was 12 at the time of the arrest (he spent 25 years on death row); and it saw a discussion on the logistics and methods of executing a death sentence.
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The referral order to the Constitution Bench highlights the lack of a uniform sentencing framework and sidesteps specifying the issues that need consideration.
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Eight men sentenced to death were acquitted over a year by the Supreme Court, revealing lapses by police, prosecution, lower and high courts, even falsification of evidence and its acceptance. These men spent an average of 10 years in jail before being acquitted. These cases are testament to the fact that the criminal justice system can condemn innocents to death. By merely acquitting these men, the Supreme Court has not truly set things right.
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