End death penalty, but not in terror cases: Panel

The decision on the Law Commission’s recommendation of abolishing death penalty, except in terrorism cases, is pending as views from the state government are awaited, minister of state for home affairs Hansraj Ahir told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

“As Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure are in the concurrent list...the report has been circulated to all state governments and Union Territories to seek their views,” Ahir said.

Arguing that capital punishment does not fulfil the goal of deterring crimes, the law commission, in its 262nd report in 2015, had recommended doing away with the death penalty, except in cases related to terrorism.

In the report, the commission said that it was time for India to move towards abolishing the death penalty immediately for all crimes “other than terrorism-related offences and waging war”. The recommendation was made in the hope that the “movement towards absolute abolition [would] be swift and irreversible”.

In sharp contrast, the Bihar Assembly in 2016 had passed the Bihar Excise (Amendment) Act, 2016, which says that mixing poisonous substances with liquor can be punishable by death in cases where it leads to loss of life. In May, the Parliament notified the Anti-Hijacking Act, 2016, which allows capital punishment in cases of hijacking that have resulted in deaths.