Law
The Supreme Court of India ruled in 1983 that the death penalty should be imposed only in "the rarest of rare cases." Capital crimes are murder, gang robbery with murder, abetting the suicide of a child or insane person, waging war against the nation, and abetting mutiny by a member of the armed forces. Since 1989, the death penalty has also been legal for a second offence of "large scale narcotics trafficking". In recent years the death penalty has been imposed under new anti-terrorism legislation for people convicted of terrorist activities.
Recently, the Supreme Court in Swamy Sharaddananda v. State of Karnataka made imposing the death penalty even harder. The judgment holds that the “rarest of the rare” test prescribed in Bachchan Singh’s case was diluted in the Machchi Singh case. The judgement then goes on to say that the “rarest of the rare” must be measured not only in qualitative but also in quantitative terms.
India's apex court has recommended the death penalty be extended to those found guilty of committing "honour killings" with the Supreme Court stating that honour killings fall within the "rarest of the rare" category and deserves to be a capital crime. The Supreme Court of India has also recommended death sentences to be awarded to those police officials who commit police brutality in the form of encounter killings.
In December 2007, India voted against a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for a moratorium on the death penalty.
In Nov 2012 India again upheld its stance on capital punishment by voting against the UN GA 3 draft resolution seeking to ban death penalty.
Read more about this topic: Capital Punishment In India
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