The PIL Watch Group views with concern
the death penalty handed over to 38 convicts - all Muslims - reported to be in relation to 56
deaths in the 2008 bomb blasts case in Ahmedabad, India. The judgement was
delivered by a special court. It is hoped that the higher judiciary would
revert the death sentences to imprisonment. Globally developed democracies have
been rethinking on this crucial issue. The trend is towards abolishing death
penalty and moving towards reformative prison sentence. The U.N. has taken a
stand against the capital punishment. Most countries have abolished it. India
is one of the few countries to have execution law in its statute book.
The Indian Supreme Court has veered
towards bringing an end to this ‘judicial murder’. It is for Parliament to take
a call with an open and dispassionate mind; the issue has been debated earlier
in 2004 in Parliament after which executions virtually came to a halt till 2012.
Since the last decade (2012-22) PIL
Watch Group has been building public opinion against capital punishment
irrespective of the crime for which the cases were lodged. The Group started campaigning against death sentence
in December 2012 while there was a clamour to award capital punishment to rape
convicts. For full two years we campaigned at the national protest site at
Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, India right amongst those who were clamouring for the
blood of the rapists of ‘Nirbhaya’. We circulated leaflets giving reasons why
capital punishment should be abolished and which countries have already done
so. It was painful to see fellow activists – otherwise co-travellers in many a
campaign – on the other side of the fence.
The irony is that it is
the people from oppressed castes; religious minorities especially Muslims; and
tribals who face the gallows in India. Worse, most of those hanged belong to
the economically weaker section of the society.
A concerted campaign to
bring an end to judicial executions is the need of the hour.
