May 31
INDIA:
Death penalty may become history
In a landmark initiative, which is expected to change the face of criminal
jurisprudence in the country, the Centre has decided to bring in
amendments to the more-than-a-century-old Indian Penal Code which, if
approved by Parliament, will relegate the existing provision of the "death
sentence" even "in the rarest of rare" cases to the annals of history.
The amended IPC while abolishing it will seek to turn the existing
life-term imprisonment of 14 years into a life-term in the strictest sense
of its meaning.
This means "hardcore criminals" sentenced to life imprisonment will have
to spend the rest of their lives in jail. "For life-term convicts the only
way out of the prison walls will be either to a cemetery or a crematorium
as and when the new IPC provisions come into affect," sources told The
Statesman. The UPA governments decision to make a decisive forward
movement in abolishing the death sentence comes in fulfilment of a
"pledge" extracted by the chairman of the Committee on Reforms of the
Criminal Justice System, Mr Justice VS Malimath, from both the home and
law ministers of the NDA government that his recommendations on amending
the IPC, submitted in April 2003, "would be spared the dust of the
government archives" and barely a year after Dhananjoy Chatterjees
execution on 14 August, 2004 in Kolkata in a rape case.
On the government's "direction," both the home and law ministries have
been engaged in "consultations and evolving consensus" with the states and
legal and constitutional experts on the subject. A draft of the amended
IPC is expected to be ready for the Union Cabinet's consideration ahead of
the monsoon session when it is likely to be placed before Parliament for
its approval and passage, sources disclosed.
The proposed IPC amendments are sought to be moved in the backdrop of a
clamour from various India-based and world human rights organisations and
the governments desire to be in league with countries of the European
Union, Far East and erstwhile CIS nations where capital punishment is not
in vogue now. "The proposal to abolish the death sentence and make a
life-term a term unto death for convicts seeks to serve the twin
objectives of pacifying human rights activists and preventing such
criminals from coming out of the prison and mixing freely with the
mainstream population," a source said.
The government's argument on the life-term punishment is that it would
work as "a minimum deterrent" against incorrigible hardcore criminals in
the absence of the death penalty. The government has also taken note of
worldwide studies on criminal behaviour arriving at the conclusion that
criminals coming out after serving long prison terms hardly ever show any
change in their behaviour pattern. In the government's view, the IPC
amendments should act as a "deterrent punishment in order to mitigate the
trauma of the capital punishment," actively opposed by human rights
organisations.
Home minister, Mr Shivraj Patil, had on 11 May, replying to a discussion
on the Malimath Committee report, said imposing life imprisonment till
death for rapists was very "salutary." He, however, added: "There was no
agreement on whether the death sentence should go (or not); both views had
strong proponents. Some felt the death sentence should be co-terminus with
life of the accused while another view was that the state couldn't take
away life of an individual."
"Much time has been spent on discussing the matter with state governments
and convincing them of the new initiative. The amended IPC, has to have
the involvement of the state governments. The amendments to the IPC are
likely to be ready by mid-July, sources said.
(source: The Statesman)
