New Delhi: Taking note of the agony and plight of victims of heinous crimes, the Law Commission has recommended implementation of the victim compensation scheme by the Centre. In its 262nd report, the Commission said, “The voices of victims and witnesses are often silenced by threats. Hence it is essential that a witness protection scheme also be established. It is essential that the states establish effective victim compensation schemes to rehabilitate victims of crime.” This is not the first time that the Law Commission has been asked to look into the death penalty.
In its 35th Report (“Capital Punishment”, 1967), it recommended the retention of the death penalty in India. However, at present the social, economic and cultural contexts of the country have changed drastically since the 35th report.
Further, arbitrariness has remained a major concern in the adjudication of death penalty cases in the 35 years since the foremost precedent on the issue was laid down. The trend towards abolition of death penalty is evident in the international laws, which have limited the scope of the death penalty by restricting the nature of crimes for which it can be implemented.
The report said, “After many years of research and debate among statisticians, practitioners, and theorists, a worldwide consensus has now emerged that there is no evidence to suggest that the death penalty has a deterrent effect over and above its alternative – life imprisonment.”
The data from the National Crimes Record Bureau on death sentences indicates that during 2002 and 2014, convictions were recorded by courts in 1,80,439 murder cases, but death sentence was imposed in 1178 cases, as the system is highly fragile, open to manipulation and mistake, and evidently fallible.”
The report said “However objective the system becomes, since it is staffed by humans, and thus limited by human capacities and tendencies, the possibility of error always remains open. In light of the Court’s own acknowledgment that the death penalty system operates in an arbitrary manner the current method of application of the death penalty has to end.”
