India is witnessing since quiet long time now heated debate on the validity of Capital Punishment in changing circumstances. India retains capital punishment for a number of serious offences. The Supreme Court of India has allowed the death penalty to be carried out in 5 instances since 1995, while a total of 26 executions have taken place in India since 1991.
Pertinent to mention here that in December 2007, India voted against a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for a moratorium on the death penalty. In November 2012, India again upheld its stance on capital punishment by voting against the UN General Assembly draft resolution seeking to ban death penalty
On the otherhand, On 31 August 2015, the Law Commission of India submitted a report to the government which recommended the abolition of capital punishment for all crimes in India, excepting the crime of waging war against the nation or for terrorism-related offences. The report cited several factors to justify abolishing the death penalty, including its abolition by 140 other nations, its arbitrary and flawed application and its lack of any proven deterring effect on criminals.
Those who oppose death sentence have time and again stated that India should join the bulk of countries that have abolished death penalty. It should surely absorb the feeling behind the increasing support by the comity of nations to the UN’s campaign for a moratorium on the practice and its abolition. Since 2007, more and more countries are jumping to the other side. Punishment by death, as the campaigners argue is against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and a “premeditated and cold-blooded killing of a human being by the state.”
Nevertheless, one finds growing support for abolishing death sentence in India.