# Supreme Court upholds hanging as execution method, leaves door open for review 2026-08-18T06:25:44+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 2 independent outlets The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a public interest litigation seeking to abolish death by hanging, upholding the constitutional validity of Section 354(5) of the CrPC. A bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta held that the petitioner failed to make a case to revisit the 1983 Constitution Bench judgment in Deena @ Deena Dayal vs Union of India, which upheld hanging as a valid method. The court clarified that the dismissal does not bar future constitutional scrutiny if compelling medical or scientific evidence emerges. It also said the Union government remains free to review the method through an expert body. LiveLaw reports the court had earlier asked the Attorney General to explore forming a committee. Hindustan Times notes the government had already constituted a committee at the highest level. Senior advocate Rishi Malhotra, who filed the PIL, had argued that hanging causes prolonged pain and sought replacement with lethal injection, shooting, or electrocution. The Union opposed this, calling hanging the safest and quickest method and citing botched lethal injections in the US. The petition had been pending since 2017. ## Coverage - livelaw.in - hindustantimes.com This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above. Updated: this story now draws on 2 sources. Last updated 2026-08-18T06:40:58+00:00. Tags: Rishi Malhotra, Sandeep Mehta, Supreme Court of India, Union of India, Vikram Nath Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/supreme-court-dismisses-plea-to-abolish-hanging-as-execution-method/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/supreme-court-dismisses-plea-to-abolish-hanging-as-execution-method/#story-in-brief How this brief was made: an AI model read the reports linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. Stance labels are editorial classifications of how each outlet framed this story, assigned by the same model, not ratings of the outlets. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/