Reformative to retributive justice

Two contradictory court judgments this week raise an uncomfortable question: Has the judiciary, from the trial court to the Supreme Court, moved from a reformative institution to a retributive one?

Here’s a proposition for debate: Over the past 15 years or so, our judiciary, from the trial court level up to the Supreme Court (SC) has progressed — if you call it progress — from a reformative institution to a retributive one.

We aren’t just basing this on the fact that 2022 was when India’s trial courts awarded 165 death sentences, the most in a single year since 2000. That it took the number of convicts on death row to 539. This is the highest in 17 years. Now, we know that most of these will be commuted and some