Guwahati: Supreme Court (SC) ruled that the Center should investigate whether there is a less painful execution option than hanging on Tuesday.
The Supreme Court asked that a conversation be started and information gathered to determine if there is a less painful alternative than hanging by the neck. The court requested a report from advocate General R. Venkataramani regarding any studies done on the effects of hanging.
The Court said, “Mr. AG, come back to us and we should have better data before us on the impact of death by hanging, pain caused and the period taken for such death to take place, availability of resources to effectuate such hanging by death. And is today’s science suggesting that this is best method today or is there another method which is more suitable to uphold human dignity.”
According to the Supreme Court, if the government hasn’t already done so it can form a committee to conduct a comparable probe.
“If Centre has not done this study, then we can form a committee which can have experts from two national law universities like NLU Delhi, Bangalore or Hyderabad, some doctors from AIIMS, distinguished people across the country and some scientific experts,” the Court stated.
In response to a petition calling for a “painless finish for death prisoners,” the court made it clear that it was willing to put up an expert team to look into the matter. Also, the petition recommends the electric chair, lethal injection or shooting as alternatives to hanging.