Parmod KumarNew Delhi, Aug. 18 -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a nearly nine-year-old petition seeking abolition of hanging as the prescribed mode for executing the death sentence and its replacement with a less painful method, but made it clear that its ruling would not preclude future constitutional scrutiny if compelling scientific, medical or empirical evidence emerges demonstrating that advances in knowledge have displaced the basis on which hanging was earlier upheld as constitutionally valid.
A bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta declined to refer for reconsideration by a larger bench the September 23, 1983, three-judge bench judgment in Deena v. union of India, which had upheld execution by hanging. Th...