Death Penalty origin of International Convention and Treaties as Indian Starting kit
Keywords:
Death Penalty, human rights, Supreme Court, Punishment, constitutional law, International convention.Abstract
Death Penalty is the law and the “Rarest of Rare cases” is the policy. The Supreme Court First version in awarding death sentence is to study whether the offence amounts to rarest of rare cases. Its first cardinal principal is that whether alternative remedy is fir to the gravity of offences. The penalty is awarded by interpreting the circumstances of individual cases. The present position regarding Capital Punishment, as one might suppose of any system – of law with pretentions of being considered civilized, to use it sparingly as possible. The punishments very as to the degree of severity, and may include sanctions such as reprimands, deprivation of privileges or liberty, fines incarcerations, infliction of pain amputation etc. and even capital punishment. The corporal punishments are the ones in which physical pain is intended to be inflected upon the transgressor. Punishment may be adjudged as being fair or unfair in terms of their degree of effectiveness proportionality and reciprocity. This paper aims at preventing the criminal from today the justice systems do not resort to barbaric punishments like mutilation, though death penalty is in the statute books of many countries.
References
1. Victor Hugo, author of Les Miserables
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5. Supra n. p. 738.
6. International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights, Article 6 reads: (1) every human being has the i nherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life. (2) In countries which have not abolished the death penalty, sentence of death may be imposed only for the most serious crimes in accordance with the law in force at the time of the commission of the crime and not contrary to the provisions of the present Covenant and to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. This penalty can only be carried out pursuant to a fina l judgment rendered by a competent court. (3) When deprivation of life constitutes the crime of genocide, it is understood that nothing in this article shall authorize any State Party to the present Covenant to derogate in any way from any obligation assum ed under the provisions of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. (4) Anyone sentenced to death shall have the right to seek pardon or commutation of the sentence. Amnesty, pardon or commutation of the sentence of death m ay be granted in all cases. (5) Sentence of death shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below eighteen years of age and shall not be carried out on pregnant women. (6)Nothing in this article shall be invoked to delay or to prevent the abolit ion of capital punishment by any State Party to the present Covenant.
7. International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights, Article 7 reads: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In particular, no o ne shall be subjected without his free consent to medical or scientific experimentation.
8. International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights, Article 14 reads: 1. All persons shall be equal before the courts and tribunals. In the determination of any criminal charge against him, or of his rights and obligations in a suit at law, everyone shall be entitled to a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law. The press and the public may be excluded from all or pa rt of a trial for reasons of morals, public order (order public) or national security in a NJCL (2020) 50–60 © Law Journals 2020. All Rights Reserved Page 59 democratic society, or when the interest of the private lives of the parties so requires, or to the extent strictly necessary in the opinion of the court in special circumstances where publicity would prejudice the interests of justice; but any judgment rendered in a criminal case or in a suit at law shall be made public except where the interest of juvenile persons otherwise requires or the proceedings concern matrim onial disputes or the guardianship of children.
9. International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights, Article 14 reads: (1)No one shall be held guilty of any criminal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a criminal offence, unde r national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time when the criminal offence was committed. If, subsequent to the commission of the offence, provision is made by law for the imposition of the lighter penalty, the offender shall benefit thereby.
10. The Second Optional Protocol 1957 to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights aiming at eh Abolition of the death penalty adopted by the General Assembly in 1989 and entered into force in July 1991
11. Article 1.1 of Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, reads: (1) No one within the jurisdiction of a State Party to the present Protocol shall be executed. (2) Each State Party shall take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty within its jurisdiction. Article 2 reads: “mentions only possibility of making reservation to the Article 1: (1) No reservation is admissible to the present Protocol, except for a reservation made at the time of ratification or accession that provides for the application of the death penalty in time of war pursuant to a conviction for a most serious crime of a military nature committed during wartime. (2) The State Party making such a reservation shall at the time of ratificat ion or accession communicate to the Secretary-General of the United Nations the relevant provisions of its national legislation applicable during wartime. (3) The State Party having made such a reservation shall notify the Secretary - General of the United N ations of any beginning or ending of a state of w ar applicable to its territory . Execution are still possible to make without breaking this convention, but the requirement for the death penalty are: • Reservation at the time of ratification or accession Con viction for a most serious crime of military nature. • Crime must be committed during wartime. • The death penalty must be executed during war time.
12. For the purposes of this Convention (Convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of punishment), the term "torture" means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of o r with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.
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24. Section 53 reads: 53. Punishments. --The punishments to which offenders are liable under the provisions of this Code are First.--Death; Secondly.--Imprisonment for life; Fourthly.--Imprisonment, which is of two descriptions, namely: Rigorous, that is with hard labour; Simple; Fifthly. -- Forfeiture of property; Sixthly.--Fine.
25. Section 121 of Indian Penal Code
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47. (1983) 3 SCC 470
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52. AIR 1997 SC 2622
53. 1980, 2 SCC 68
54. 1983, 3 SCC 470 Cite this Article Monika Jain . Death Penalty origin of International Convention and Treaties as Indian Starting kit . National Journal of Criminal Law. 2020; 3(1): 50–60p.
