SC Seeks Centre's Response On Plea Against Mode Of Execution.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud issued notice to the Centre and sought its response in three weeks on the PIL which referred to the 187th Report of the Law Commission against the present mode of execution.
Lawyer Rishi Malhotra, who filed the PIL in his personal capacity, has also referred to various apex court judgments in which the practice of hanging a death row convict has been assailed. Mr. Malhotra said a convict should not be compelled to suffer at the time of termination of his or her life. “When a man is hanged to death, his dignity is destroyed,” he submitted.
The government should look to the “dynamic progress” made in modern science to adopt painless methods of causing death.
“Legislature can think of some other means by which a convict, who under law has to face death sentence, should die in peace and not in pain. It has been said since centuries that nothing can be equated with painless death,” Chief Justice Misra observed in the order.
The court clarified that it was not questioning the constitutionality of the death penalty, which has been well settled by the apex court, including in the Bachan Singh case reported in 1983.
The plea said that Article 21 (Right to Life) of the Constitution also includes the right of a condemned prisoner to have a dignified mode of execution so that death becomes less painful.
 
The court said a provision in the Criminal Procedure Code under Section 354 — which mandates death by hanging — of the Code of Criminal Procedure has already been upheld. The plea also challenges the constitutional validity of this provision.
During the hearing, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, one of the three judges on the Bench along with Justice A.M. Khanwilkar, pointed out that in the U.S. a prisoner suffers for almost 45 minutes before his death by lethal injection.