 bill no 241 of 2017 the death penalty (abolition) bill, 2017 bydr shashi tharoor, mp abill to abolish the death penalty in indiabe it enacted by parliament in the sixty-eighth year of the republic of india as follows:—1 (1) this act may be called the death penalty (abolition) act, 2017short title, extent and commencement(2) it extends to the whole of india, except the state of jammu and kashmir5(3) it shall come into force on such date as the central government may, by notificationin the official gazette, appoint45 of 18603 (1) notwithstanding anything in the indian penal code, 1860 or any other law for the time being in force at the time of commencement, the offences punishable with death sentence shall be read and interpreted as 'imprisonment for life'substitution of death sentence with life imprisonment5explanation:—for the purposes of this section, the term 'imprisonment for life' shall mean imprisonment till the end of the natural life of the convict subject to provisions of section 433 of the criminal procedure code, 1973 (2 of 1974) statement of objects and reasonsthe death penalty is a dated form of retributive justice that is untenable with our historic traditions of non-violence and has no place in an india of the 21st century on the contrary, it is a distraction from the needed strengthening of preventive and reformative models of our judicial systemsarticle 21 of the constitution of india guarantees every person the right to life and personal liberty, which cannot be deprived except through a procedure established by law, that is just, fair and reasonable the sentencing of death is measured through the doctrine of 'the rarest of rare'yet, the very nature of this doctrine lends itself to human bias and in turn, stands in stark contradiction with the previous tenet of a judgment beyond the scope of reasonable doubt this has been noted on occasion by both the supreme court itself, as well as the law commission which concluded in its analysis of the death penalty in india, that the exercise of mercy powers under articles 72 and 161 of the constitution, have failed to act as a bulwark against the miscarriage of justice in the imposition of the death penalty the fact that lower courts award a significant number of death sentences, of which, only a fraction of these are confirmed by the supreme court, lends credence to the belief that the 'rarest of rare' doctrine has not been applied in spirit by lower courtsthat a significant percentage of individuals who have been given this sentence hail from socio-economically vulnerable groups illustrate the larger implications of such bias further, the utility of capital punishment as a 'deterrent' to crime and terror stands effectively diminished given that comprehensive studies have statistically denied any correlation between rate of crime and death penalty the existence of such a punishment also renders implausible any scope for reformation of a convictthe death penalty is untenable to the concept of a just and reasonable legal procedure, as the ends of justice in deterring criminal activity, is not served by the death penalty, more than the punishment of life imprisonment the penological justifications for the death penalty are no longer valid, in light of the evolving jurisprudence and criminology, in favour of restorative justice, rather than justice motivated by retributiontherefore, the death penalty remains an aberration in a healthy democracy and has in effect failed to fulfil the purpose it was designed to instead, it has reduced the state, the moral safeguard and gatekeeper of justice for the common citizen to a position of weakness, ignoring mahatma gandhi's prescient warning that an 'eye for an eye will make the world blind' therefore, in the spirit of justice, fairness and immeasurable value of human life, this bill seeks to abolish the sentence of deaththerefore this bill lok sabha————a billto abolish the death penalty in india————(dr shashi tharoor, mp)gmgipmrnd—2621ls(s3)—19122017