India Registers 136 Death Sentences In 2016, Up From 70 In 2015 [Read Report]

Amnesty International's Report on Death Sentence and Execution 2016 has recorded India as one of the retentionists of death penalty. In 2016, two countries abolished death penalty for all crimes and one country abolished it for ordinary crimes only. Several others took steps to restrict their use of this punishment, confirming that despite regressive moves in some countries, the global trend remain towards abolition of death penalty as the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

India recorded no executions in 2016, while it carried out one in 2015. However, citing the 2016 Annual Statistics Report from the Centre on the Death Penalty at NLU Delhi, the Amnesty International report records the number of death sentences imposed having increased to 136 in 2016 from 70 in 2015..

There were 397 prisoners still on death row at the end of 2016. According to the Centre on Death Penalty's (NLU Delhi) 2016 Annual Statistics Report, 15 death sentences were confirmed by high courts and the Supreme Court confirmed death sentence in one review petition.

The President rejected six mercy petitions while exercising his power of clemency under Article 72 of the Constitution.

Five death warrants for execution of the sentence were issued before the prisoners had exhausted all their legal options.

Four executions were stayed by the Supreme Court and one was stayed by the High Court of Karnataka days before the final execution.

In the report, India is also listed as one of the countries that impose death penalty for crimes not meeting the threshold of "most serious crimes" under Article 6 of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

These crimes include non-intentional killing and drug-related offences.

The Anti-Hijacking Act, 2016, has introduced death penalty for perpetrators of hijacking, if it results in the death of a hostage or security personnel.

The Bihar State Legislative Assembly in March 2016 unanimously passed the Bihar Excise (Amendment) Bill, 2016, to ban country-made liquor.

The Bill introduced death sentence for manufacturers and distributors of illicit liquor in case of liquor-related deaths. However, in October 2016, the Patna High Court quashed this Act as being unconstitutional. This has now been stayed by the Supreme Court.

While 141 countries of the world are now abolitionist in law or practice, India retains death penalty. The UN General Assembly adopted its sixth resolution on a moratorium on the use of the death penalty. India voted against the moratorium. A private member's resolution was introduced in the Rajya Sabha in 2015 for the abolition of death penalty, which was rejected after debate. No new developments have been recorded since.

Read the Report here.