Compassionate Judicial System
Constitutional validity of the capital punishment as provided in the Indian Penal Code has been challenged in many cases and so far as the Supreme Court has always upheld that the capital punishment provided in the Indian Penal Code is constitutionally valid.
AWARENESS
By: Saumya Singh (Advocate)
6/4/20242 min read
Capital punishment is the punishment given by the courts to legally kill the accused because of committing serious crimes like murder. The honorable Supreme Court in Bachan Singh vs State of Punjab case 1980 held that the death penalty should be "rarest of rare". The two prime questions must be asked by courts before awarding capital punishment:
First, is there something uncommon about the crime?
Second, if circumstances may be such that there is no alternative but to impose a death sentence.
There are other reasons why the death penalty must be rarest of rare or either should have no place in society. If we correlated the heinous crimes with mental illness there comes the bigger picture. The reports in the results of Project 39A done by Delhi NLU under the guidance of mental health professionals from NIMHANS, Banglore has alarmed the legislature with its remarkable relationship between a sentence to death and mental health crises. The study involved the interview of 88 death row prisoners and families. Its findings were:
First, what are the origin of the violent behaviors which led to the criminal acts?
Second, how might living on death row affects the mental health of the prisoner.
The results of the reports are astonishing to society. A high proportion of death row prisoners have been exposed to adverse childhood experiences. More than half the prisoners had experienced verbal and physical abuse as children and most of the majority had experienced parental neglect which was grownup in disturbed family environments. This harsh and traumatic childhood experience there had led them to poor mental health and violent behavior.
The reports also say that due to this they were diagnosed with a current episode of mental illness. These suffering were due to fear of awarding death sentences to them.
Mental illness in India if taken seriously at on right time then heinous crimes like murder, sexual violence could be stopped to a certain extent. The compassionate justice system should have to acknowledge the link between mental health and the death sentence. Not only the law and judiciary should be committed to this formula but also this society which exposes our children to toxic level of deprivation and failure of parents to nurture their child with mental health services at early stages.