Overview
- The Supreme Court dismissed a 2017 public-interest petition on Tuesday, August 18, 2026, leaving hanging as the legally prescribed method for carrying out death sentences.
- A two-judge bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta refused to refer or reopen the 1983 Deena/Deena Dayal precedent that upheld hanging, saying a two-judge bench cannot displace a Constitution Bench decision absent materially changed facts.
- The court expressly authorised the Union government to form or continue expert panels of specialists in law, forensic medicine, neuroscience and related fields to study whether an alternative method would better minimise pain and preserve dignity.
- The judgment said the material before it did not show that lethal injection is demonstrably superior to hanging and cited multiple instances of botched lethal injections in the United States as reasons for caution, while stressing any change requires unimpeachable scientific or empirical evidence.
- The ruling reiterates that the State must minimise suffering and preserve dignity under Article 21, leaves immediate practice unchanged for death-row prisoners and signals that policy, technical implementation and future reform will rest with the Executive and Legislature unless new science compels judicial review; the Law Commission’s earlier recommendations and India’s limited history of executions provide wider background for further study.