2018 Saw Most Death Penalty Awarded In The Last 20 Years, Thanks To Changes In POCSO Act

The judiciary handing over death penalty to many criminals, particularly the sexual offenders. 162 convicts were sentenced to death in India by trial courts in 2018, the highest number of capital punishments awarded in the country in a year since 2000. The number of capital punishments awarded in 2018 saw dramatic increase from a year ago when 109 convicts were sentenced to death.

In 2018, with a total of 22 capital punishments pronounced by the trial courts, Madhya Pradesh had the highest number of death sentences in the country, an increase of over 4 times fro 2017 when 6 persons were sentenced to death in the state.

Maharashtra had the second highest number of death penalties at 16 in 2018 followed by Karnataka and UP, (15 each) Rajasthan (13) and Tamil Nadu (12).

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Significantly, eight states, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura did not have even a single death penalty awarded in 2018.

As of 31st December 2018 there are a total of 426 death row convicts in India.

According to ¡®Death Penalty in India: Annual Statistics Report 2018¡¯, by Project 39A at the National Law University, Delhi, the number of death penalties increased in 2018 after the amendments brought in the POCSO Act.

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Following the outrage over the rape and murder of a minor girl in Kathua, Jammu & Kashmir, Parliament amended the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC) through the 2018 Criminal Law (Amendment) Act to provide for the death penalty for rape and gang rape of girls below 14.

Later in December 2018 the Union Cabinet also approved amendments to POCSO to introduce death penalty for penetrative aggravated sexual assault with children below the age of 18 years.

So far, only two states, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have awarded death sentences under the 2018 IPC amendments.

While the number of death sentence in the trial courts have gone up, the study showed that the number of capital punishments upheld by the SC has gone down. The three death sentences confirmed by the SC were those of the convicts in the 2012 Delhi gangrape case.

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In the same year the SC also commuted 11 death sentences to life imprisonments.

Also in 2018, President Ram Nath Kovind rejected a mercy petition filed by a death row convict.

The clemency plea of Jagat Rai who was found guilty of burning the house and killing his wife and five children was rejected by the President on 23rd April 2018.

The study also mentions an observation made by Justice Kurian Joseph while commuting the death sentence in Chhannu Lal Verma called for the reconsideration of the constitutionality of the death penalty.