It was reported that the Chief Justice of the Calcutta...

It was reported that the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court sought views from colleagues on ways to execute people in a less painful manner. This came in response to a letter from the Law Commission of India, seeking the court's views on ways to lessen the pain of a death sentence. Citing examples of Western countries, the letter noted that there were four principal means of executing a death sentence: by gas chamber, by electric chair, by lethal injection or by hanging. However, the letter said that all four methods were ultimately painful and brutal. After pushing one into a gas chamber the person was found to fight death with extreme agony and pain. The letter said that although causing death by injection was painless, the mental agony would not be less. The letter also stated that from the judge to the hangman, all men concerned in executing the sentence ended up with feelings of guilt and remorse. The Law Commission felt that with the progress of civilisation, death by hanging was inhuman. Criminal lawyer and public prosecutor Ashoke Bakshi felt that the issue should be left to medical experts. "Whether a person feels pain or not is absolutely a physical matter. For a person who knows he will die in the next few moments, no form of death can ever be 'less painful'. The mental agony he suffers cannot be lessened by giving him a painless death," he said.