The Gujarat High Court’s confirmation of the death penalty for 38 individuals convicted in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial bomb blasts marks an unprecedented moment in India’s judicial history. The devastating attacks, planned and executed by the banned extremist group Indian Mujahideen, killed 56 innocent people and injured many others. The severity of this coordinated, violent act, indeed, calls for accountability. In its July 7 judgment, the court cites the “humongous” conspiracy involved in the dastardly act. However, a judgment that upholds a mass death sentence also challenges the tenets of modern jurisprudence. The central argument against capital punishment posits that a civilised, constitutional society must not respond to killings with state-sanctioned killings. Legal systems must prioritise justice over retribution, even when they engage with acts of terror. It is not the finality of execution that achieves real justice; it is the adherence to the rule of law and compliance with the established constitutional processes.

Now, the convicts have been met with the violence they inflicted on society. A legal stamp of approval notwithstanding, this furthers the idea of retributive justice. Capital punishment may be legally permitted for the “rarest of rare” cases. The blasts could be considered within the scope of that definition. However, legality and justice are not the same. The ruling – by a division bench of justices A Y Kogje and Samir Dave – is also marked by its scale. A death sentence is wrong even for one person, and multiplying it across 38, in a single case, makes it 38 times as wrong. In this context, the claims of “just and equal” treatment are misplaced. Many hail the judgment as evidence of the state’s resolve for strong action against terrorism. But the state is a human institution. It must be humane before it becomes strong.

The state has evolved over centuries, but the legal systems it prescribes are sometimes based on a primitive idea of justice that considers it right to take an eye for an eye. As Gandhi said, that would make the whole world blind. The legal system should be rooted in an idea of justice that is reformative, not vindictive or retributive. Most countries in the world have either abolished the death penalty or have suspended its operation. India should join them and honour its own rich, traditional values of humaneness and compassion. Executing 38 people at once would not deliver lasting justice; it would only leave the nation’s sense of humanity with a stain. (Source: DH)