• Capital punishment also called as death penalty is the execution of an offender sentenced to death after conviction by a court of law. The debate on whether to abolish the death penalty or not, has been raging in India and in several other countries for decades

Why death penalty is not the solution:-

• Death penalty has never been a deterrent against any sort of crime:-
• There is little empirical evidence to show that those about to commit a capital offence would stop themselves merely out of the fear of being hanged.
• Even S. Verma committee decided against recommending the death penalty for rape. It rightly took into account the possibility of awarding life sentences without remission for aggravated sexual assault.
• Further, there is a legitimate concern that the country’s judicial system has not been consistent in awarding the death penalty.It will be especially wrong to force judges to compare the relative ‘merits’ of rape victims based on their age and choose between death sentence and life.
• The Law Commission, while recommending abolition of the death penalty, except in terrorism-related cases, observed that it is difficult to operate the ‘rarest of rare cases’ principle without a hint of arbitrariness.
• Provision of death penalty in rape cases will only make matters worse by slowing the administration of justice.Besides, when victim is the sole witness, as in most sexual assault cases, it will induce murder of rape victims by the perpetrators of the crime to destroy the evidence .
• Even when awarded death penalty the accused do not have remorse for their actionsfor instance documentary showing the accused blaming victim itself in Nirbhaya case etc 
• The death penalty has not deterred terrorism, murder or even theft. For over a century, stealing attracted the death penalty in England, where spectators at public hangings often had their pockets picked.
• The death penalty unfairly targets the poor and marginalised. Those without capital get the punishment. Penurious prisoners on legal aid get it the most, while others with private lawyers remain untouched.
• The death penalty is impossible to administer fairly or rationally. The Supreme Court has repeatedly admitted that it has arbitrarily imposed this most extreme punishment.

However death Penalty is necessary sometimes due to the following reasons:

• The punishment is not arbitrary because, it comes out of a judicial process.To call it arbitrary, one has to necessarily prove the process as flawed.
• It is being implemented in the “rarest of the rare” casesand the fact is during the last 13 years, only four people have been executed.
• The hanging of Ajmal Kasab and Yakub Memon strongly affirms India’s commitment to the protection of life.
• People criticise it on arbitrariness, irreversibility and human rightsand these are not valid arguments.
• Its constitutionality is upheld, even in liberal democracies like U.S. It is not reflection of uncivilised society.
• India’s neighbourhood is not peaceful, unlike Scandinavia. India has got troubled borders. Several forces are trying to destabilise the very idea of our Nation from across the Border.
• The sacredness of life can only be seen to be protected, if those who take it away are proportionately punished.