February 04, 2019:

Project 39A of the Centre on Death Penalty at National Law University, Delhi  (NLUD) highlights highest number of death penalties awarded by trial courts in the year 2018.

Dr. Anoop Surendranath, Executive Director of the Centre on the Death Penalty of the National Law University, Delhi named the Project as `Project 39A’ as it symbolises 'Equal Justice and Equal Oppurtunity'.  According to him, the Project 39A draws inspiration from Article 39-A of the Indian Constitution on equal justice and signals their broad engagement with the criminal justice system in India.

Project 39A explores issues of forensics, torture, forensic psychiatry and legal aid. This broader approach reflects the multiple aspects of the criminal justice system and a Campaign against Death Penalty in India.

In Death Penalty in India: Annual Statistics Report, 2018 research efforts have been made to look into trial court death penalty sentencing, mental health of death row prisoners, pro bono legal representation of nearly 65 death row prisoners across India and an opinion study with respect to 60 former Supreme Court judges, in addition to legislative changes and political developments.

As per the Death Penalty Report, the year of 2018 witnessed:

  • 162 persons were sentenced to death by trial courts in 2018, a jump from 108 death sentences awarded in 2017, and the highest number since 2000. Around 426 prisoners were under the sentence of death as on 31st December 2018.
  • The state of Madhya Pradesh saw the highest number of death penalties being handed out in the year 2018.
  • Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi, who assumed office in October last year, made the hearing of death penalty cases a priority. He has constituted four 3-judge benches to sit simultaneously for over 6 weeks to decide death sentence cases.
  • Supreme Court in Babasaheb Kamble v. State of Maharashtra, November 2018, did away with ‘in limine’ dismissals of Special Leave Petitions in death penalty cases.
  • Supreme Court recognised the prisoner's right who is sentenced to death to meet mental health professionals at a reasonable frequency and for reasonable lengths of time, at all stages as part of their right to effective legal representation.
  • Justice Kurian Joseph, while delivering his dissenting opinion in the case of Chhannu Lal Verma v. State of Chhattisgarh, observed that the time had come to reconsider the need for the death penalty as a punishment, especially its purpose and practice.
  • Supreme Court chose to go in a different direction, commuting all but one of the death penalty cases that it heard in 2018.
  • Legislative Amendments were made in the year 2018, whereby the scope for imposition of the death penalty was expanded, particularly in the face of public outcry following the Kathua rape case. Death sentence was proposed as a possible punishment for rape and gang-rape of girls below the age of 12 years.
  • In August 2018, the Cabinet also approved a bill providing death penalty or life imprisonment for crimes involving maritime piracy or piracy at sea.
  • In January 2019, the Union Cabinet approved and introduced in the Lok Sabha amendments to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO) which brought in the death sentence as a possible punishment for penetrative aggravated sexual assault with children below the age of 18 years.
  • In November 2018, India voted against the UN General Assembly’s Draft Resolution to establish a moratorium on the death penalty.

Read the full Report @ LatestLaws.com

Project+39A+Annual+Statistics Report 2018- Death Penalty in India(Downloadable PDF)

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