How often do women face execution in India?

Two death sentences in Meerut have renewed attention on women facing capital punishment. Historical records and recent data reveal how rare executions remain

On October 14, the Meerut District and Sessions Court sentenced Muskan Rastogi and her partner Sahil Shukla to death for murdering her husband, Saurabh Rajput, and concealing his dismembered body in a blue plastic drum filled with cement. On October 16, another Meerut court sentenced Ravita Kashyap and her partner Amardeep to death for murdering her husband, Amit Kashyap, and staging his death to resemble a snakebite.

The back-to-back verdicts bring renewed attention to the use of the death penalty against women in India. However, death sentences for women remain relatively rare, and a trial court's verdict does not necessarily lead to an execution.

Data from the Square Circle Clinic at NALSAR University of Law provides a broader picture of how many women receive death sentences and how these cases fare on appeal.

Women on death row in India

According to Death Penalty in India: Annual Statistics Report 2025, published by the Square Circle Clinic in February 2026, trial courts sentenced 10 women to death in 2025, compared with 118 men. This was the highest annual number of women sentenced to death since the research team began tracking cases in 2016. All 10 women had been convicted of murder.

As of December 31, 2025, India had 574 people on death row, including 24 women and 550 men, according to the report. Women accounted for about 4.2 percent of the total. This data covers the period from 2016 to 2025.

How often are death sentences upheld?

A death sentence awarded by a trial court does not automatically lead to an execution. Under Section 407 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, a Sessions Court's death sentence must be submitted to the High Court for confirmation.

The Square Circle Clinic's 2016–2025 analysis highlights how frequently these sentences change during the appellate process. Of the 1,085 death sentences decided by High Courts over the decade, 106, or 9.77 percent, were confirmed. High Courts acquitted 376 people and commuted 515 death sentences to lesser punishments, including life imprisonment.

The Supreme Court's record reinforces this pattern. It did not confirm any death sentences between 2023 and 2025. In 2025, it acquitted 10 people who had been on death row, the highest annual number of such acquittals recorded by the research team since 2016.

These figures cover death penalty cases overall, rather than women alone. Rattan Bai Jain, widely identified as the only woman executed in independent India, was hanged at Tihar Jail on January 3, 1955, after being convicted of murdering three young girls. No other woman has been executed in India since.

After a death sentence

Several legal stages must be completed before a death sentence can be carried out. The process includes:

High Court confirmation: The High Court examines the sentence and may confirm it, commute it, acquit the accused, or order further proceedings
Supreme Court appeal: The convicted person can challenge the High Court's decision before the Supreme Court
Review and curative petitions: Further legal remedies may be available after the Supreme Court's judgment, subject to applicable requirements
Mercy petitions: The convict may seek clemency from the President under Article 72 of the Constitution or the Governor under Article 161

The process can take years, particularly when appeals and mercy petitions are pending. However, the duration varies by case, and a long delay does not automatically mean that a sentence will be commuted.

Shabnam Ali and the long wait for execution

Shabnam Ali's case is among India's most prominent examples of a woman facing the death penalty without being executed.

Shabnam and Saleem were convicted of murdering seven members of her family in Uttar Pradesh in 2008. A trial court sentenced them to death in 2010, and the Allahabad High Court upheld the sentences in 2013. The Supreme Court upheld Shabnam's sentence in 2015, and her mercy petitions were subsequently rejected.

However, she has not been executed. The rejection of mercy petitions does not itself establish that an execution is imminent, as the applicable legal and procedural requirements must still be followed.

Renuka Shinde and Seema Gavit

The sisters, Renuka Shinde and Seema Gavit, were convicted in connection with the kidnapping of children and the murders of nine children between 1990 and 1996. In January 2022, the Bombay High Court commuted their death sentences to life imprisonment after finding that the authorities had taken more than seven years to decide their mercy petitions. The court held that the prolonged, state-attributable delay violated their rights.

Their case illustrates that even a death sentence upheld through earlier appeals may ultimately be commuted because of subsequent developments.

Like other death sentences, the verdicts in the Meerut cases will be subject to the appeals process, and their outcomes will depend on the decisions of the higher courts.

Source: business-standard.com, Sarjna Rai, October 19, 2026

"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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