Justice Kurian Joseph calls for review of death penalty with last judgement

The judgement aims to increase the threshold for sentencing someone to death

As Justice Kurian Joseph retires on Thursday, he will be remembered for his last judgment, which will further limit the grounds for imposing the death penalty. In Chhannu Lal Verma vs the State of Chattisgarh, Justice Joseph, while commuting the death sentence of the appellant to life imprisonment, observed that the time had come to review the need for the death penalty as a punishment, especially its purpose and practice.

The other two judges on the bench, Justices Deepak Gupta and Hemant Gupta, while agreeing that the death penalty imposed on the appellant in this case must be commuted to life