If death penalty is abolished, should life term be till death, asks SC bench

A bail plea filed by five murder convicts from Chhattisgarh led to a bench of the Supreme Court on Thursday commenting at length about the death penalty.

The Times of India reported that a bench of the apex court questioned if there can be any reduction in life imprisonment if the death penalty is abolished.

The Supreme Court’s observations come at a time when the execution of 1993 blasts convict Yakub Memon and a Law Commission report on the death penalty have set off a debate on capital punishment.

According to the TOI report, a bench of Justice TS Thakur and Justice V Gopala Gowda observed that many convicts sentenced to life imprisonment are released after 14 years because they are granted remission, because of which “the general public thinks that life imprisonment is only for 14 years.”

The court said that some such prisoners seek bail after they serve more than five years on those grounds.  The convicts from Chhattisgarh, whose petition was being heard in the Supreme Court, had sought bail while their appeal was pending.

Not long ago, a five-judge constitutional bench had observed that awarding the death penalty would be better than life imprisonment without any hope for release. This was during a petition filed by the centre against the Tamil Nadu government’s decision to set free the persons convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

In a recent report, a majority in the Law Commission has called for a ‘swift’ abolition of the death penalty, except in terror-related cases. The Law Commission observed that capital punishment does not act as more of a deterrent than life imprisonment. The report expressed concern over ‘miscarriage’ of justice and about the justice system being disproportionately harsh towards ‘poor and disenfranchised’ people.