DEATH PENALTY: CONSTITUTIONAL POSITION

ABSTRACT: The Supreme Court of India as the highest Judicial Tribunal of the country has given its authoritative decisions on various points of law from time to time. The apex court has examined the constitutional validity, procedure and many other issues related to death sentence and delivered its valuable verdict on numerous occasions in last 50-60 years. The constitutionality of death penalty has been questioned before the Supreme Court several times on the ground that it contravenes provisions incorporated in Indian Constitution. However, the Court has made it clear many times that the imposition of death penalty is not opposed to the supreme law of the land, Bhagwati, J., is of opinion that Sec. 302 of the I.P.C. in so for as it provides for imposition of death penalty as an alternative to life sentence is ultra vires and void because it is violating Art. 14 and 21 of the constitution since it does not provide any legislative guidelines as to when life should be permitted to be extinguished by imposition of death sentence.The rarest of the rare doctrine is being misused. This paper suggests the abolition of death penalty as it has failed to prove its deterrence effect.