In 2023, HCs heard cases of 80 on death row, confirmed one

Appellate courts have over the past years confirmed fewer death sentences, but, according to the report, just one confirmation in a year signified further decline at the level of the high courts.

“Similarly, this is the second calendar year after 2021, where the Supreme Court has not confirmed any death sentence,” the report said.

In 2022, HCs confirmed the death sentences of four convicts, five in 2021 and three in 2020. The dip was steep after 2019 when HCs confirmed death sentences of 26 convicts. In the previous years, the numbers remained in a similar range: 23 in 2018, 11 in 2017 and 16 in 2016.

Under Section 366 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), all death sentences awarded by trial courts are to be confirmed by the concerned HCs, although both the conviction and the quantum of sentence are examined by the first appellate court.

According to the report, in 2023, trial courts awarded death sentences to 120 prisoners. Of these, 57 cases involving 80 death row prisoners were heard by HCs, which remanded five prisoners back to trial courts for fresh trial, acquitted 36, and gave a lesser sentence (commutation) to 36 others. The sentences of two prisoners in two cases were abated after their death.

The sole confirmation was recorded at the Karnataka HC, which, in May, agreed with the death sentence awarded in a murder case.

“Acquittal and remand by the Supreme Court and the High Courts in 2023 indicate significant concerns with the quality of police investigations and appreciation of evidence by lower courts in cases,” the report said.

According to the report, the total number of death sentences awarded (in trial courts) last year had also seen a significant drop — from 167 in 2022 to 120 in 2023. More than half (55%) of these 120 were in homicidal rape cases, it added. “In a trend continuing since 2019, crimes involving sexual offences formed the majority of death penalty cases at the trial courts,” the report said.

The report said that in 2023, the HCs also disposed of fewer cases involving death sentences compared to 2022 (68 cases involving 101 prisoners), meaning the number of prisoners on death row went up.