SC dismisses plea to abolish death by hanging

The Supreme Court of India on Tuesday, August 18, 2026, dismissed a petition that sought to abolish death by hanging as the legal method for executing capital punishment, ruling that the existing practice does not violate constitutional rights. However, the bench led by Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta indicated that the issue could be revisited in the future based on new evidence and encouraged the government to review alternatives.

The public interest litigation, filed in 2017 by senior advocate Rishi Malhotra, challenged Section 354(5) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, now replaced by the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), which mandates that a death sentence be carried out by hanging the prisoner by the neck until death. Malhotra argued that hanging causes "prolonged pain and suffering," describing it as cruel and barbaric, and proposed replacing it with intravenous lethal injections, shooting, electrocution, or gas chambers as less painful alternatives. He contended that the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution includes the right to die with dignity.

In its judgment, the court stated it was not persuaded to reconsider earlier precedents...