Supreme Court Questions Government Opposition to Lethal Injection Option for Death Row Inmates

A file photo of a prison cell.

New Delhi:

The Supreme Court has expressed concern over the government's resistance to allowing death row convicts the option of lethal injection as an alternative execution method.

During a hearing on a public interest litigation, the court considered the petition seeking either replacement of hanging with lethal injection or providing condemned prisoners a choice between methods.

Advocate Rishi Malhotra, representing the petitioner, argued, "At least give an option to the condemned prisoner... whether they want hanging or lethal injection... lethal injection is quick, humane, and decent, as opposed to hanging, which is cruel, barbaric, and lingering."

The petitioner noted that similar options exist within military executions.

The government, however, filed a counter-affidavit stating that providing such an option was "not feasible."

This prompted Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta to observe that the government appears "not ready to evolve with changes taking place over a period of time."

"The problem is that the government is not ready to evolve... it is a very old procedure," Justice Nath remarked regarding hanging as an execution method.

Senior advocate Sonia Mathur, appearing for the government, emphasized that offering execution choices involves policy decisions, as stated in their counter-affidavit.

The case has been adjourned until November 11.

The petition contends that the current hanging practice causes "prolonged pain and suffering" to condemned individuals.

It advocates for alternatives such as lethal injections, firing squad, electrocution, or gas chamber - methods that reportedly cause death within minutes rather than the potential 40 minutes in hanging cases.

The petitioner highlighted that 49 of 50 U.S. states employ lethal injection as their execution method.

Specifically, the petition seeks to have Section 354(5) of the Criminal Procedure Code declared "discriminatory and violative of Article 21 of the Constitution" which protects the right to life, and contradictory to the Supreme Court's verdict in the Gian Kaur case.

It also argues for "the right to die by a dignified procedure of death" as a fundamental right guaranteed under Article 21.

The petition criticizes death by hanging as "barbaric, inhuman, and cruel," and contrary to United Nations resolutions stating that if capital punishment must be enforced, "it shall be carried out so as to inflict minimum possible suffering."

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