India’s Supreme Court has rejected a plea to replace hanging with “less painful” methods of execution such as lethal injection, NDTV reports.
Hanging will remain the method of execution in India for now.
The plea proposed alternatives including lethal injection, shooting, electrocution or a gas chamber, arguing hanging takes nearly 40 minutes to cause death against roughly five minutes for other methods, the Indian news outlet said.
Hanging was called “extremely painful, inhuman and cruel”.
The petition sought to have its use under Section 354(5) of the Code of Criminal Procedure declared unconstitutional, and asked that the right to a dignified death be recognised as a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Indian constitution.
The court said its ruling was not the final word and could be revisited if strong scientific evidence emerged on alternative methods.
The government, it added, could set up an expert committee to review the matter if it wished.
A committee has already been formed to study the issue, as per NDTV.
The court reportedly flagged its concern earlier over the government’s reluctance to change the practice, after a proposal allowing convicts to choose between hanging and lethal injection was turned down as “not practically feasible”.
India Top Court Keeps Hanging Unchanged, Turns Down Lethal Injection Plea
