Capital Punishment 2

Introduction
Ever since the enactment of the Indian Constitution in 1950, public awareness of problems with death penalty and prevailing legal standards have evolved significantly. India is said to be one of the most liberal and open countries in the world and our constitution is a testimony to this very fact.
In dozens of countries, democratic governments in the course of conducting a major review of their national constitutions have decided to curtail, if not abolish, the death penalty. In national systems and as a matter of international law, it is increasingly recognised that the death penalty has no place in a democratic and civilised society. India is sovereign, secular, and democratic. And yet, it is astonishing that India is one of the few, to be exact, 54 countries in the world, which still embraces the concept of capital punishment or the death penalty.
Through this paper, I shall try to study and summarise the debate on death penalty in India and try to come up with arguments as to why it is inhuman and unconstitutional.
History of Capital Punishment in India
The practice of capital punishment has always been a part of the Indian Judicial system. It was incorporated onto the IPC (Indian Penal Code) right from the begining in 1860. Similarly, it was also present in the Criminal Procedure Code (1898). According to Section 367 of the CrPC, a person convicted of murder was to be sentenced to death. And this was to be the general rule, not an exception. The interesting point to be noted is that right from the days of the British rule, there has been a strict opposition to the enforcement of capital punishment. For example, in 1931, Gaya Prasad Singh, a member of the Legislative Assembly introduced a Bill in the Assembly which proposed to abolish the death penalty in the country. However, it was overturned. Even after Independence, there have been several attempts, both inside and outside the Parliament, to force the abolition of the death penalty....