As long as the provision of death penalty exists in our laws, it will have to be honoured by all concerned. However, in my personal opinion, we should abolish the same.”That’s the Chief Justice of India designate Justice Y K Sabharwal on the contentious issue of the death sentence. The debate has been re-opened after President A P J Abdul Kalam’s advice to the Government asking it to consider pardon for a majority of Death Row convicts whose mercy pleas are before him—as first reported in The Indian Express this Monday. Speaking to The Indian Express this evening, Sabharwal said: “Today, (the) Indian Penal Code provides for death penalty in the rarest of rare cases. I believe that as long as it’s there in the Code, whatever may be my personal feelings they must be kept out. When a case comes under the category in which death sentence has to be given, I don’t think one should bring in his or her personal motive and say, no, it may be in IPC but I will not follow it.” “But,” he quickly added, “if one were to ask me what my personal opinion as an ordinary citizen was, then I would say that we should not have the death penalty.This is because it is very difficult for someone to award something which he cannot restore.” Justice Sabharwal said while many states in the USA still retained the death penalty clause, entire Europe had done away with it. ‘‘It is a socio-political question and it’s up to the Parliament to decide whether we should continue to have it or not,” said Justice Sabharwal who takes over on Nov 1. He, however, denied that the death penalty was biased against the poor. “Poverty cannot be a ground for leniency. If that was allowed, then it would amount to giving a license to do more crime,” he said.
