India, Sept. 9 -- Additional District and Sessions Judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar, while pronouncing his 23rd capital punishment in the last four months in a dowry death case on Monday, said in his verdict that he would prefer death to being called a "coward judge".

In his judgment awarding the death penalty to a man who burnt his wife over dowry demands, the fast-track judge asserted that he would not discharge his judicial duties "under pressure from mafias, gangsters or criminals".

Diwakar observed that his parents had taught him to fear God and no one else, and that if he performed his judicial duties out of fear of strongmen, mafias, gangsters or criminals, public faith in the judiciary would erode.

In his judgment, Diwakar said he woul...