INDIA: JUDGES SAY NO TO DEATH

most judges of the Calcutta High Court in India want the death sentence to be abolished. Of the 41 judges, 32 voiced their opinion against capital punishment during a nation-wide survey by the National Law Commission. The nine judges who want the punishment to continue are against death by hanging. They have suggested options like administering electric shocks or lethal injections to the convicts. “That would be less cruel. Hanging is too grotesque and should stop,” a judge is said to have told the officials conducting the survey. The law commission will submit its report to Parliament after talking to the judges of all high courts and the Supreme Court. “The commission wants a debate on whether capital punishment should continue or not,” said senior counsel Gitanath Ganguli.