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Project 39A
May 19 , 2020
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- It is a report by research organization Project 39A of National Law University, Delhi.
- The study chose three states and Union Territories namely Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Maharashtra.
- These states were chosen as they ranked high in awarding capital punishments.
- The trial courts in Delhi awarded death penalty invoking the concept of society’s collective conscience.
- ‘Collective conscience of society’ as a ground to justify death penalty was first used by the Supreme Court in the 1983 judgment of Machhi Singh v. State of Punjab.
- Collective conscience found its most recent endorsement in the 2017 judgment of the Supreme Court in the December 2012 Delhi gang rape case of Mukesh v. State of NCT of Delhi.
- The study also revealed non-compliance by the trial courts with the sentencing framework laid down by the Supreme Court in its 1980 judgment in Bachan Singh v. State of Punjab.
- In that case, a Constitution bench of the Supreme Court was called upon to decide the constitutional validity of the capital punishment.
- The Law Commission in 2015, headed by Justice A P Shah proposed to abolish capital punishments.
- However, the commission had made the proposal only to non-terrorism cases.
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