Essay on Law Commission’s Report on Capital Punishment in India !
In response to the resolution moved in the Parliament in 1962 on the abolition of capital punishment, the Government of India referred the question to the Law Commission. The Commission decided to take up this subject separately for the revision of the general criminal law in view of its importance. The Commission presented its report to the Lok Sabha on November 18, 1971, in which it inter alia observed:
“Even after all the arguments in support of abolition of capital punishment are taken into account, there does not remain a residium of cases where it is absolutely impossible to enlist any sympathy on the side of the criminal. The Commission further expressed a view that ‘retribution’ involved in capital punishment does not connote the primitive concept of ‘eye for an eye’ but it is an expression of public indignation at a shocking crime, which can better be described as ‘reprobation’.”
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Therefore, the Commission did not recommend any material change in the offences which are made punishable with death under the Indian Penal Code.
As regards the question of exempting certain categories of persons from death sentence, the Law Commission in its 42nd Report published in June 1971 suggested that:
(1) Children below 18 years of age (at the time of commission of the crime) should not be sentenced to death.
(2) It is not necessary to exempt women generally from the death penalty.
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(3) It is unnecessary to insert a statutory provision relating to “diminished responsibility” in the statute book.
(4) An attempt to commit suicide should cease to be an offence in India. The present law in this regard is “harsh and unjustifiable and it should be replaced”.
The Law Commission strongly felt that capital punishment acts as an effective, deterrent “which is the most important object and even if all objects were to be kept aside, this object would by itself furnish a rational basis for its retention”. In its concluding remarks, the Commission observed that having regard to the peculiar conditions prevalent in India and the paramount need for maintaining law and order in this country, we cannot risk the experiment of abolition. This is perhaps the most appropriate approach to the problem of capital punishment so far Indian criminal justice system is concerned.