Proceedings of the 20th International Academic Conference, Madrid

INDIAN SOCIETY’S PARADIGM OF DEATH SENTENCE: A LOOK AT WHETHER INDIA WAS WRONG TO EXECUTE YAKUB MENON.

SHRUTI SETHI,

Abstract:

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.” - Martin Luther King, Jr. Even after 160 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice, India is still one of those 58 countries which hands out the death penalty. The hanging of Mumbai Terror attack convict Yakub Menon on July 20, 2015 who had killed 257 and injured many others in the 1993 blasts has reinitiated the age old debate on the validity of death penalty in a nation which is a firm believer of the Gandhian Principal, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” This debate correctly impels a moral and philosophical issue of whether in this era of globalization where human rights, specially ‘Right to Life’ are given the utmost importance in the International arena should India lag behind and execute convicts disregarding the consistent uprising against such actions by human rights activists worldwide. This paper delves into the subject in three parts. The first part introduces the debate on the viability of Death Penalty given to Yakub Menon throughout which the author critically analyses the execution of the terror convict Yakub Menon and puts forth her views in relation to the same. The Second Part relates to the interplay of ‘death penalty’ and the ‘Fundamental Right to Life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.’ In this part the author studies various landmark judgments of the Supreme Court of India and the recently released Consultation Paper by the Government of India in May, 2014. The third part illustrates the journey of Death Penalty in India by describing the concept of ‘hanging till death’ just after India got its Independence in 1947 where it was compulsory for the courts to give death sentences in various cases to its now refined version where death penalty is given only in the ‘rarest of rare cases.’ Finally, the author after exploring the historical and societal reasons for retention of death penalty in India will suggest a way out of the given disorder and chaos and illustrate how India has not completely disregarded the ‘international human rights issues’ and will in-turn pose the question- ‘whether India was really wrong to hang Yakub Menon?’

Keywords: India, Society’s Paradigm, Death Sentence, Yakub Menon, Right to life, Human Rights, Article 21 of the Constitution of India.

DOI: 10.20472/IAC.2015.020.090

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