India | Why Supreme Court is worried about lower courts’ hurry to hand out death sentences

India’s Supreme Court is showing marked restraint in death penalty cases in 2025, overturning or commuting most of the sentences it reviews.

In the first seven months of the year, it heard 14 death sentence appeals, fully acquitting seven and commuting four to life imprisonment — confirming none. This continues a pattern seen since June 2022, when the court last upheld a non-terror death sentence.

High courts are also pushing back; between 2016 and 2025, they rejected death sentences in 80% of cases referred for confirmation.

This contrasts sharply with trial courts, which frequently impose capital punishment.

Legal aid to the poor does not mean poor legal aid.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly reminded lower courts of the “rarest of rare” doctrine established in 1980, which upheld the constitutionality of the death penalty but limited it to cases where no alternative is possible.

Former Chief Justice U U Lalit has stressed the need for rigorous scrutiny and proper consideration of “mitigating circumstances,” warning that the standard of proof in such cases must be “absolutely strict.”

Recent reversals underscore this caution. In a quadruple murder case from Punjab, the Supreme Court overturned a death sentence, citing a lack of “unimpeachable evidence.”

Data from Project 39A shows that between 2016 and 2024, trial courts issued 1,180 death sentences, but only 95 were confirmed by appellate courts. Calls are growing for uniform sentencing standards and more time for convicts to present mitigating factors.

Former judges have expressed deep reservations about capital punishment.

Justice Lalit confirmed only two death sentences in his career, while Justice Abhay Thipsay said he never imposed one as a trial judge, citing the risk of error and the emotional atmosphere of early trials. Both stressed the importance of high-quality legal aid, noting that most defendants are poor and often sell assets to afford representation.

As Justice Lalit put it, “Legal aid to the poor does not mean poor legal aid” — especially when a human life is at stake.

Source: Times of India, Suny Baghel, August 13, 2025

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

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