Abolition of capital punishment sought

New Delhi, Nov 24 (UNI) An impassioned plea was today made in the Lok Sabha to abolish capital punishment as the ''barbaric practice'' was a legacy of ancient and medieval times and unsuited to the needs of modern India.

Continuing further discussion on a private members Bill on abolishing 'Capital Punishment in India,' members. by and large, were of the opinion that it worked against the poor, who cannot take recourse to expensive legal remedies.

They said the main end of justice was to reform and not revenge an individual and effective means can be devised to ensure that a criminal does not harm society without killing him. Life imprisonment was one such instance.

The Bill was introduced on August 14, 2006, by Mr C K Chandrappan (CPI), who today again started the debate.

Mr Chandrappan said the philosophy of 'eye for eye or tooth for tooth'' should not be adhered to and the evolution of human society entails that the approach should be to reform an individual.

He cited the instance of England and said servants and poor were executed at one time for even stealing a small article.

Mr Chandrappan said under King Henry V111 as many as 72,000 people were executed and in the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1 more than 19,000n people were executed.

He said as many as 120 countries have abolished capital punishment and made out a case for adopting a more humane approach to crime.

Mr Hanan Mollah( CPI-M) said such a punishment was against the spirit of the times and said the United Nations was against it.

Mr Bachi Singh Rawat( BJP), however, pleaded for retaining capital punishment on the plea that it was necessary to instill fear among the citizens.

Mr Ram Kirpal Yadav( RJD) said the barbaric practice was against the tide of times with the world heading towards more liberal and open societies.

Mr Shailender Kumar (SP) said the rise in the rate of crime in the country needs to be taken into account while taking a view on the issue. '' The abolition of capital punishment is desirable, but it is also a fact that it helps contain crime,'' he said. Mr B Mehtab( BJD) regretted that India was among the 76 countries in the world which have retained capital punishment, and wanted to the government to take early steps to abolish it.

Mr K S Rao(Congress) also participated in the discussion.

Replying to the bill, Union Home Minister Shiv Raj Patil said this was a very complicated issue and taking a decision, either this way or the other, is equally a difficult task.

He said the decision on this type of cases is taken on a case-to- case basis depending upon the various factors responsible for it.

He said each and every member, who participated in this debate, spoke very well pleading their point of view but the one point referred by Prof M Ramadoss (PMK) that let this piece of legislation should be maintained in the Statute but not be made operational.

He said it is a fact that nearly 120 countries from all over the world have already abolished this law and opted for the abolition of capital punishment while another 70 countries in the world are still continuing with this though they are also not using this.

Mr Patil said even in India this piece of legislation was used only once over the past five years, and that too in the case of Dhananjay. It clearly shows that the judiciary as well as the government takes its decision after going through the nature of the case, he added.

Mr Patil requested Mr Chandrappan to withdraw the bill.

Mr Chandrappan withdrew the bill after thanking all the eleven members who participated in the course of the discussion of this bill.

The bill was then withdrawn by a voice vote.

UNI KSA/BKS RL BD1852