NEW DELHI, Aug. 27 -- Warning that the "machinery which feeds the death-penalty system is itself fragile", the Supreme Court has held that the horror of a crime alone cannot justify sending a convict to the gallows unless the process leading to such punishment is scrupulously fair, transparent and thorough.

"A Constitution that proclaims liberty and dignity as its first commitments cannot permit the State to end a human life unless every safeguard of fairness has been honoured and every civilising impulse of the law has been heard," said a bench of justices Vikram Nath, Sanjay Karol and Sandeep Mehta.

It cautioned that the irreversible nature of the death penalty, when grafted on to an error-prone process, risks violating Article 21's g...