Press Trust of India Posted online: Sunday, July 25, 2004 at 1243 hours IST Updated: Sunday, July 25, 2004 at 1246 hours IST
New Delhi, July 25: A vast majority of judges, who responded to the Law Commission on execution of death penalty, feel that administering lethal injection should be an additional mode for sniffing out a condemned prisoner's life.
The Law Commission's 187th Report on "Mode of Execution of Death Sentence and Incidental Matters", which was tabled in Parliament recently, analysed the responses it received from judges of different High Courts and subordinate courts.
About 80 per cent of the judges, who responded to the Commission's questionnaire, favoured an amendment to Section 354(5) of the Criminal Procedure Code, which provided that when a person is sentenced to death he shall be executed by hanging by neck till he is dead.
"All of the 80 per cent judges who are in favour of amendment of Section 354(5) have suggested that administering lethal injection should be the other mode of execution of the death sentence," the report said.
However, five per cent of the judges had suggested that apart from the lethal injection, 'shooting' could also be prescribed as an alternative mode of execution of death sentence, said the report presented to the Law Ministry by Commission Chairman Justice MJ Rao.
"Only approximately 19 per cent of the judges are satisfied with the present mode of execution of death," the report, without giving the number of respondents, said.
