Shabnam Ali would become the first woman to be executed after independence. Hailing from Amroha, she has been charged for butchering her family to death along with her lover Saleem. Her family was dead against her association and relationship with Saleem for their respective social and economic backgrounds.
Shabnam has denied and refuted the charges as for Saleem who took this step after being insisted and encouraged by Saleem.
Whosoever participated and partnered in committing the crime should be immediately booked. The sentencing of capital punishment awarded in the rarest of rare case merit and motive has to carefully established and evaluated before the bench decides to reserve its order.
In the Nirbhaya case, the court walked the extra mile for bringing the perpetrators to justice by ordering their hanging till death, influenced and impacted by the ideas, views and opinions of the media, civil society organisations and groups.
Ajmal Kasab met the same fate for his involvement, presence and participation in the Mumbai terror attacks of 2008.
How then are we to decide the rarest of rare cases and on what grounds, as has been repeatedly argued by the Supreme Court?
In 2015 a Law Commission headed by Justice AP Shah ruled out capital punishment violating and abusing the fundamental principles of natural justice, life and liberty. Isn’t it so as an eye for an eye can make the whole world blind.
In this regard, I have a few proposals which top courts can take up in preserving and honouring the rights of the convict. A JS Verma committee came up firmly on sexual harassment of women in workplaces, thus setting glaring precedence in the country’s judicial history.
These committees serve a larger lifeline of correcting and counselling the individual’s conscience who have been completely drifted and deviated for their part.