Death penalty by injection not workable: Centre informs Supreme Court

The plea filed by advocate Rishi Malhotra has sought striking down of section 354(5) of the CrPC which says “when any person is sentenced to death, the sentence shall direct that he be hanged by the neck till he is dead”.

Malhotra also wanted the court to “declare Right to Die by a dignified procedure of death is a Fundamental right as defined under Article 21 of the Constitution of India”. He pointed out that the Law Commission in its 187th Report had noted that there was a significant increase in the number of countries where hanging has been abolished and substituted by electrocution, shooting or lethal injection as method of execution.

“It had categorically opined that hanging is undoubtedly accompanied by intense physical torture and pain,” the plea said. It said while in hanging, it takes over 40 minutes to declare a prisoner dead, shooting involves not more than few minutes and in case of intravenous lethal injection, it is all over in 5 minutes.