India
Death penalty and prisoners' rights · Archive since 1999
Data card
- Legal status
- Retentionist
- Executions recorded in 2026
- 0
- Executions recorded in 2025
- 0
- First news item in the archive
- JANUARY 1, 1999 · The Indian legislative system also provides for different...
- News items in the archive
- 1,863
Source: Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026.
India is classified as Retentionist in the Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026. In 2026 the association recorded 0 executions in the country, against 0 the year before. The archive holds 1,863 news items on India, from 1999 to today.
In India the death penalty applies to murder, terrorism and certain serious sexual offences, and the method is hanging. Case law restricts it to the cases it calls the rarest of the rare: many sentences are handed down, few executions are actually carried out, and a significant share of sentences is overturned or commuted on appeal.
The archive follows sentences, commutations, executions and legislative debates.
Latest news
AUGUST 28, 2015IndiaDEATH PENALTYINDIA: LAW PANEL DRAFT PAPER FAVOURS ABOLITION OF DEATH PENALTY
The Law Commission is set to recommend abolition of death penalty in India except for terror convicts,
JULY 30, 2015IndiaDEATH PENALTYINDIA: YAKUB MEMON EXECUTED FOR 1993 MUMBAI BOMBINGS
A little over 22 years after the Mumbai bombings that killed 257 people in 1993, the lone convict on death row in the case – Yakub Abdul Razak Memon – was hanged at the Central Prison in the city of Nagpur.
- JULY 22, 2015IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: YAKUB MEMON FILES FRESH MERCY PLEA BEFORE PRESIDENT
The execution of 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memon might be delayed as he reportedly handed over a fresh plea for mercy to Nagpur central jail authorities, to be forwarded to the President
JULY 20, 2015IndiaDEATH PENALTYINDIA: TRIAL COURTS GIVE DEATH FREELY, BUT JUST 5% CONFIRMED
Just 5 % of the 1,790 death sentences handed down by trial courts in the last 15 years have been confirmed by the Supreme Court.
JULY 16, 2015IndiaDEATH PENALTYINDIA: CONVICT HAMSA SENTENCED TO DEATH IN SAFIYA MURDER CASE
The district sessions court in Kasaragod, state of Kerala, has awarded death sentence to K.C. Hamsa,
JULY 12, 2015IndiaDEATH PENALTYINDIA: DEATH PENALTY IS PRIVILEGE OF POOR, SAYS LAW COMMISSION HEAD
Noting that poor and downtrodden usually go to the gallows, Chairman of the Law Commission of India
- JULY 11, 2015IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: MPS, LEADERS SEEK REPEAL OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
Cutting across the party lines, the members of Parliament (MPs) and political leaders favoured the abolition
JULY 10, 2015IndiaDEATH PENALTYINDIA: FORMER PRESIDENT A P J ABDUL KALAM FAVOURS ABOLITION OF DEATH PENALTY
Former president A P J Abdul Kalam has supported abolition of the death penalty, saying that as President
JUNE 18, 2015IndiaDEATH PENALTYINDIA: MAN AWARDED CAPITAL PUNISHMENT FOR RAPING EIGHT-YEAR-OLD GIRL
A lower court in Ashta Tehsil near Sehore, Madhya Pradesh, awarded capital punishment to a man for raping a minor eight-year-old girl.
- MAY 28, 2015IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA CONVICTS CAN'T BE HANGED SECRETLY AND HURRIEDLY, SAYS SUPREME COURT
Supreme Court has said that execution of death row convicts cannot be carried out in an arbitrary, hurried
- APRIL 21, 2015IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: HC COMMUTES DHARAMPAL'S DEATH SENTENCE TO LIFE TERM
Giving benefit of prolonged delay in deciding on his mercy petition by the President, the Punjab and Haryana high court commuted the death sentence of Dharampal, a rape convict from Sonipat who later murdered five members of the rape survivor's family whi
APRIL 14, 2015IndiaDEATH PENALTYINDIA: HIGH COURT COMMUTES DEATH SENTENCE TO LIFE TERM
Gujarat high court has commuted the death sentence of a convict to life imprisonment in a case of kidnapping and murder of a 9-year-old in Navsari.
APRIL 4, 2015IndiaDEATH PENALTYINDIA: THREE SENTENCED TO DEATH IN MUMBAI RAPE CASE
An Indian court has sentenced three men to death for the rape of a photojournalist inside an abandoned textile mill in the financial hub of Mumbai last year.
MARCH 30, 2015IndiaDEATH PENALTYINDIA: FOUR SUSPECTED MAOISTS GET DEATH SENTENCE IN MURDER CASE
A court in Bihar's Sheohar district awarded death sentence to four suspected Maoists convicted in the murder of five people in an attack at a village in Bihar's Sheohar district five years ago.
MARCH 26, 2015IndiaDEATH PENALTYINDIA: PRESIDENT PRANAB MUKHERJEE COMMUTES DEATH SENTENCE OF A CONVICT TO LIFE IMPRISONMENT
after rejecting mercy petitions of 22 convicts on death row, President Pranab Mukherjee commuted the death sentence of a convict to life imprisonment.
FEBRUARY 16, 2015IndiaDEATH PENALTYINDIA: BOMBAY HIGH COURT CONFIRMS DEATH FOR 'REMORSELESS' MAN WHO RAPED, KILLED SCHOOLGIRL
The Bombay high court upheld the death sentence of a 25-year-old man who raped a 13-year-old
JANUARY 27, 2015IndiaDEATH PENALTYINDIA: MUMBAI HIGH COURT COMMUTES DEATH SENTENCE OF SOLAPUR MAN WHO KILLED SON AND NIECE
The Mumbai high court commuted the death sentence of a Solapur man who had killed his three-year-old
- JANUARY 21, 2015IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: ENGINEER SENTENCED TO DEATH
In India, a Poonamallee court sentenced a 26-year-old aeronautical engineer to death for the murder and
JANUARY 15, 2015IndiaDEATH PENALTYINDIA: ODISHA COURT SENTENCES MAN TO DEATH FOR TWIN MURDER
A District and Sessions Judge court in Odisha’s Jajpur district handed out the death sentence to a man
- JANUARY 1, 2015IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The death penalty is provided for by the Penal Code and by Art. 21 of the Constitution
The death penalty is provided for by the Penal Code and by Art. 21 of the Constitution
- DECEMBER 20, 2014IndiaDEATH PENALTY
the Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of a death row convict, Ajay Kumar Pal, to life
the Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of a death row convict, Ajay Kumar Pal, to life
- DECEMBER 12, 2014IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: DEATH SENTENCE FOR MAN CONVICTED FOR MURDEROUS ACID ATTACK
The Gwalior bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court upheld the capital punishment awarded to a man by the
- DECEMBER 2, 2014IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: CABINET GRANTS APPROVAL FOR ANTI-HIJACKING BILL 2014
A Bill seeking stringent punishment including death penalty for hijackers was approved by the Union
- NOVEMBER 26, 2014IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: SC AWARDS DEATH PENALTY TO MAN FOR RAPING 4-YR-OLD GIRL, STONING HER TO DEATH
SC has awarded death sentence to a 47-year-old man from Maharashtra after finding him guilty of raping a
NOVEMBER 19, 2014Sri LankaDEATH PENALTYSRI LANKA PARDONS INDIAN FISHERMEN ON DEATH ROW
Five Indian fishermen condemned to death for smuggling drugs into Sri Lanka will walk free after President
- NOVEMBER 4, 2014IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: 56-YEAR-OLD'S DEATH PENALTY COMMUTED TO LIFE TERM FOR CHILD RAPE, MURDER
A 56-year-old man, facing gallows for raping and murdering a three-year-old girl, has been spared death
OCTOBER 30, 2014Sri LankaDEATH PENALTYSRI LANKA: DEATH FOR FIVE INDIAN FISHERMEN
The Colombo High Court awarded the death sentence to five Tamil Nadu fishermen arrested by the Sri
- OCTOBER 16, 2014IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: WOMAN'S FATHER, UNCLE GET DEATH SENTENCE IN HONOUR KILLING CASE
In a 2012 case of honour killing, a court in Punjab awarded death sentence to the victim woman's father,
- SEPTEMBER 30, 2014MalaysiaDEATH PENALTY
MALAYSIA: 'CURRY MURDER' CASE ENDS IN DEATH SENTENCE FOR COUSINS
A housewife and her cousin had their murder conviction upheld and were sentenced to death in Malaysia, in
- SEPTEMBER 29, 2014IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: HC CONFIRMS DEATH SENTENCE GIVEN TO 25-YR-OLD GIRL, TWO OTHERS
The Madhya Pradesh High Court confirmed the death sentence awarded to three people, including a 25-