21 July 2004 :

The Indian government announced it had no plans to abolish the death sentence. There had been several appeals from organisations and individuals for the commutation of the death sentence, but there was no proposal to bring legislation to ban the death penalty, Minister of State for Home S. Reghupathy said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha. "Non-governmental organisations like Amnesty International and Campaign Against Death Penalty had appealed for the abolition of capital punishment on the ground that it is immoral, inhuman, irrevocable and morbid," the minister informed. To a question on the number of condemned prisoners in the country, he said the information was being collected and would be laid on the table of the house. Amnesty International India estimated in a study that had yet to be completed that about 50 persons were on death row, sources said.