The Supreme Court acquitted ten prisoners who had been on death row, the highest number of such acquittals in the past decade. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
The Supreme Court of India has not confirmed a single death penalty in the last three years, according to an annual statistics report on death penalties in India published by The Square Circle Clinic, a criminal justice initiative at the NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad.
In fact, in 2025, the top court acquitted ten prisoners who had been on death row, the highest number of such acquittals in the past decade.
The report, which examined death penalty trends across India over the last ten years, found that the Sessions Courts handed down 1,310 death sentences nationwide between 2016 and 2025. “Despite growing judicial scepticism at higher levels,” the lower courts sentenced 128 individuals to death in 2025 alone, the report said.
High rate of acquittals
Of the 1,310 death sentences, 842 verdicts were handed down by the High Courts, of which 70 — that is, just 8.31% — were confirmed. The High Court acquitted 285 people on death row, while 411 death sentences were commuted.
The Supreme Court’s stance has been even more restrictive, with no death sentence confirmed in the last three years. Also, in cases where Sessions Courts imposed death sentences which were confirmed by the High Courts, not a single sentence has yet been affirmed by the Supreme Court. Of the 37 such death sentences which have been decided by the Supreme Court, 15 resulted in an acquittal and 14 were commuted.
“What is starkly clear from these figures is that errors at Sessions Courts are not only leading to wrongful imposition of death sentence but are also resulting in wrongful convictions. The high rate of acquittals by the appellate judiciary requires a serious examination of how Sessions Courts deem a case worthy of even a conviction,” the report said.
Sentencing guidelines ignored
The report also showed that India had 574 prisoners — 550 men and 24 women — on death row as of December 31, 2025. This is the highest number of persons on death row since 2016. The average time spent on death row before acquittal was over five years, with some prisoners languishing for nearly a decade before being exonerated. However, 138 individuals were also removed from death row during the year through acquittals, commutations, or remand orders, underscoring the instability of capital sentencing, it found.
One of the report’s most alarming findings concerns procedural violations at the sentencing stage. Despite clear guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in Manoj vs State of Madhya Pradesh, which mandate psychological evaluations, prison conduct reports, and mitigation hearings — which were elevated to a fair trial right requirement in Vasanta Sampat Dupare vs Union of India — in 2025, nearly 95% of death sentences in 2025 were imposed without compliance. Sentencing hearings were frequently conducted within days of conviction, leaving little scope for meaningful defence representation, the report said.
Another emerging trend is the growing use of life imprisonment without remission as an alternative to the death penalty. While courts view it as a middle ground, the report flags concerns over excessively long fixed-term sentences — some extending up to 60 years — raising fresh questions about proportionality and rehabilitation.
Published – February 04, 2026 06:08 am IST
