Thread by @LiveLawIndia

#SupremeCourt hears PIL seeking painless end for death convicts. The PIL suggests shooting, injection or electrocution instead of hanging.

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Counsel: There is a very detailed order of October 2017. Death by dignity is a fundamental right.

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Counsel: When a man is hanged, his dignity is lost. Dignity in death is necessary.

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Counsel: A convict whose life has to be end, he should not have to suffer the pain of hanging. Nothing can be equated with dignity in death.

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Counsel: Please see, I've shown that when a person goes for hanging, what process he goes through-
"The slightest error in the drop can result in lingering of the hang."

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Counsel: The body of the condemner should be left hanging for half an hour till the medical practitioner says that he has no life- this is absolutely cruel.

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Counsel: Course of events in other countries shows that hanging is slowly being abandoned.

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Counsel: "Hanging should be replaced by something humane and painless"- this was held way back in 1967.

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Counsel: Please see the Dinanath judgement. The challenge was way back in 1984. The petitioners were death convicts. The question was concerning the validity of way of death. The petitioners said that hanging is cruel and barbaric.

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Counsel: The sentence should be carried with a method which amounts to least amount of pain and avoids torture.

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Counsel: Cruelty and torture are not static concepts. So what is considered cruel now may not have been considered cruel before.

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Counsel provides examples of cases where death row convicts had to be left hanging for two days as they slowly strangulated.

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Counsel: Our own armed forces law provides for two choices- either by shooting or by hanging. These provisions are missing in our CrPC provisions.

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Counsel: It is neither quick, neither humane- 30 mins the body keeps hanging till the doctor checks if the person is dead or not.

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Counsel: 36 states in USA have abandoned hanging.

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Adv Rishi Malhotra cites the dissenting judgement of Justice Bhagwati in Bachchan Singh.

"If the drop is too short, there will be a slow and agonising death by strangulation. On the other hand, if the drop is too long, the head will be torn off."

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Malhotra: In 1927, a surgeon who witnessed execution wrote- The bodies were cut down after fifteen minutes and placed in an antechamber, when I was horrified to hear one of the supposed corpses give a gasp and find him making respiratory efforts, evidently a prelude to revival.

Justice Narasimha: Question of dignity is not under contest. Even the issue of min amount of pain is not in contest. Question which remains is what does science offer? Does it offer lethal injections? The judgement says no. In America it was found lethal injection was not right

CJI DY Chandrachud: What does the scientific knowledge offer to us now?

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CJI : We cannot tell the legislature that you adopt this method. But you can certainly argue that something may be more humane. Shooting this bench specifically rejected. Have you read the anecdotal evidence for lethal injections?

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CJI DY Chandrachud: These American magazines have written about how in lethal injections also results are startling. The person really struggles...

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CJI DY Chandrachud: Dina requires revisiting ofcourse. Dina itself says lethal injections is not necessarily more painless...

Malhotra: Law Commission opposed Dina in that point. Please see.

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CJI DY Chandrachud: On what basis does the law commission say that lethal injection is not a lingering death? There has been great divergences on what chemicals are to be used too. What research is there?

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Justice Narasimha: Socrates wrote to Plato that I am feeling happy but only thing I feel is there is some kind of heaviness in my feet...

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CJI DY Chandrachud: There is another way to look at Bachan Singh. There is no mode of execution which will have dignity in death. So mode of execution itself is unconstitutional. So if you cannot have a valid mode of execution...

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CJI DY Chandrachud: When a death penalty is executed, it's executed in the presence of district magistrate and superintendent, ofcourse there may be some report. What do these reports of these officers say? Do they indicate the extent of prisoners?

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CJI DY Chandrachud: Second, regarding shooting- they rejected it because they said shooting is the favourite pastime of militaries and they shoot citizens for sport so shooting is barbaric...

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CJI DY Chandrachud: Burden is on Union to constantly conduct surveys and studies.

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AG Venkatramani: If your lordships so desire, I will come back and update you on this.

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CJI DY Chandrachud: One option would be that we have some better data before the court on what is the impact of death by hanging in terms of pain etc

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CJI DY Chandrachud: We can look at the matter from the point of view of technology and science - does today's stage of knowledge says hanging is the best way?

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CJI DY Chandrachud: Third, do we have any data either in India or overseas regarding alternate methods. Or do we form a committee? We're just thinking. We can have National Law Universities on the committee. @NLUDofficial has some eminent people.

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CJI DY Chandrachud: We could have some doctors from AIIMS, some scientists, we could gather data.

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AG: Let me come back with some updated perspective.

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CJI DY Chandrachud: So we can have perspective on alternate method. Or we can see- does this method satisfy the test of proportionality for it to be upheld?

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CJI DY Chandrachud: We must have some underlying data before we relook at it.

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CJI DY Chandrachud: You can come back to us by next week and we can formulate a small order, constitute the committee- we can hear you on remit etc

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Malhotra: In armed forces, there is shooting...

CJI DY Chandrachud: Even there noone shoots, we won't accept shooting.

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CJI DY Chandrachud: End of May, we'll give you enough time. We don't want to precipitate the matter. It's a matter for reflection.

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