Former Supreme Court Justice K Joseph backs life imprisonment over execution. Says ‘will hanging Nirbhaya convicts stop heinous crimes from happening.’
Life for a life
The statement comes in two days before the 4 convicts -Akshay Thakur, 31, Pawan Gupta, 25, Vinay Sharma, 26, and Mukesh Singh, 32- scheduled execution. Justice does not mean life for a life; the absence of freedom is the worst that a person can have, said the ex-judge.
“By hanging these people, will such type of crimes stop? In the Bachan Singh case, Supreme Court had said that the death penalty can be handed over in rarest of the rare cases, and that too, only when all other options are unquestionably foreclosed,” the retired Supreme Court judge said.
Supreme Court Justice (retired) Kurian Joseph: By hanging these people (Nirbhaya case convicts), will such type of crimes stop? In Bachan Singh case, SC said that death penalty can be handed over in rarest of rare case & only when all other options are unquestionably foreclosed. pic.twitter.com/zt7UB5NcKD
— ANI (@ANI) March 18, 2020
Life imprisonment over execution
Backing life imprisonment over execution, he said if people were sent to jail for life, society could be told that this would be their fate for such crimes. On the other hand, if they were executed, the crime was forgotten.
Supreme Court Justice (retired) Kurian Joseph: If people who commit such crimes are sent to jail forever, society can be told that if anyone indulges in such sort of crimes, they will be behind bars forever whereas people forget (about the crime) after the execution. https://t.co/4aPTBPfSbO
— ANI (@ANI) March 18, 2020
“I don’t think that by hanging the four convicts the parents of Nirbhaya will get justice. I have all sympathies definitely for the parents of the victim. I feel sorry,” retired Justice Joseph said.
“Gandhi Ji had said that an eye for an eye will only make the world blind. So in criminal justice procedure, there is nothing called vengeance. If I take your life that means you will take mine. This is not justice. Vengeance and retribution are two different concepts altogether,” he added.
The purpose of punishment is retribution, restitution, and reformation, he said.
“According to me even if the court has left out considering any of these aspects at the time of the considering the mercy petition, the president and the government also has to take into account some of these aspects,” he said.
After a wait for 7 years, the four death row convicts in the December 16, 2012 gang rape and murder case were hanged on Friday at 5.30 am after a Delhi court on Thursday rejected the pleas of three of them seeking a stay on their execution.
