Only one death sentence confirmed by High Court in 2023, lowest since 2000: Data Premium

The 2023 report on death penalty in India reveals a decrease in confirmation rates and a high death row population.

In 2023, the High Courts confirmed the death sentences of 1% of prisoners whose cases were up for decision. This is the lowest confirmation rate by the appellate courts since 2000. The lone confirmation came in the Karnataka High Court in a murder simpliciter case. If the dominant intention of the act was to kill a person, it is ‘murder simpliciter’; otherwise, it is categorised as an accidental murder. These were some of the findings of the ‘Death Penalty in India: Annual Statistics 2023’ report, which was released by Project 39A, an advocacy group with the National Law University, Delhi.

The death sentences of 45% of prisoners were commuted. An equal share of prisoners were acquitted. The remaining 6% were remanded to trial courts (Chart 1).

Chart 1 | The chart shows the share of prisoners whose death sentences were confirmed, commuted and remitted by the High Court. It also shows the share of prisoners on death row who were acquitted.

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Notably, the rate of disposal of death penalty confirmation proceedings at the High Courts decreased by around 15% in 2023. Last year, 57 death penalty cases were disposed of compared to 68 cases in 2022. This decline is attributed to the high number of prisoners who are on death row in the country. The report noted that with 120 death sentences being imposed by trial courts, there were 561 prisoners on death row by the end of December 2023. This is the highest number in nearly two decades, and the second-highest since 2000, according to the National Crime Record Bureau’s Prison Statistics Reports.

Chart 2 | The chart shows the number of prisoners on death row as on December 31 each year.

The number of prisoners on death row by the end of December 2023 had increased by over 40% compared to 2016.