Cannot Abolish Death Penalty Just Because Other Countries Have Done It, Says Supreme Court

The Supreme Court while upholding death penalty of Nirbhaya rape convicts observed that death penalty cannot be abolished in India only on the ground that other countries have done it, Live Law has reported.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra made this observation while dismissing the review plea. Advocate A P Singh said that the law was passed in a colonial era and that it was abolished in England and other Latin American countries.

Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra, who represented the state responded by saying that it was for the parliament to amend the law and it has already been established in the case Bachan Singh vs State of Punjab.

Justice Ashok Bhushan who authored the judgement said, “The submission of Mr. Singh that death penalty has been abolished by the Parliament of UK in the year 1966 and several Latin American countries and Australian States have also abolished death penalty is no ground to efface the death penalty from the statute book of our country. So far the death penalty remains in the Penal Code the courts cannot be held to commit any illegality in awarding death penalty in appropriate cases.”