Supreme Court seeks Centre's response on plea against mode of execution

The Supreme Court today asked the Centre to respond to a plea challenging the legal provision that a death row convict would be hanged to death.

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.

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 judgements in which the practise of hanging a death row convict has been assailed.

A provision in the Criminal Procedure Code provides that the mode of execution of death penalty would be hanging by the neck. The plea also challenges the constitutional validity of this provision.