Acquittal Rate Of HCs In Death Penalty Case Four Times Confirmation Rate : Square Circle Clinic report
The acquittal rate of the Supreme Court is twice the confirmatin rate.
On February 4, the Square Circle Clinic at NALSAR released its latest Annual Death Penalty Statistics Report(2016-2025). The report confirms the global trend towards avoiding the granting of the death penalty due to varied reasons, including subjective discretion and non-adherence to sentencing guidelines. As per the report, in the past decade, the acquittal rate of High Courts has been...
On February 4, the Square Circle Clinic at NALSAR released its latest Annual Death Penalty Statistics Report(2016-2025). The report confirms the global trend towards avoiding the granting of the death penalty due to varied reasons, including subjective discretion and non-adherence to sentencing guidelines.
As per the report, in the past decade, the acquittal rate of High Courts has been four times the confirmation rate. The Supreme Court's acquittal rate was twice the confirmation rate. For the third consecutive year, the Supreme Court did not confirm any death sentences. Moreover, the court acquitted 10 people in 2025, the highest number since 2016.
In the last 10 years, the Sessions Courts imposed 1,310 death sentences on 1,279 persons in 822 cases. Of these, the High Courts have decided 842 death sentences, and a staggering low of only 70(8.31%) were upheld. It resulted in 30.64% acquittals(258), 48% commutations(515) and only 8% confirmations.
Trial Courts continued failure to adhere to sentencing guidelines resulting in high number of death sentences
While the Supreme Court and the High Court tend to avoid the death penalty, the high number of death sentences awarded by the Sessions Court still indicates a high number.
Even in 2025, the Trial Courts awarded a death sentence to 128 persons(118 males, 10 females) in 94 cases, out of which death sentences of only 10 persons in 5 cases were confirmed by the High Court.
The numbers revealed in the report indicate that till 2016, the number of persons on death row stood at 400. However, this number, as of December 31, 2025, now stands at 574, which is a 45 % increase in the total death row population. Most of them have been convicted for murder simpliciter(254), followed by murder involving sexual offence(213).
One of the reasons why Trial Courts continue to give a high number of death sentences is because of their failure to strictly adhere to the Manoj Guidelines.
In Manoj v. State of M.P.(2023), the Supreme Court recognised there is a huge disparity in the application of the rarest of rare principle. Therefore, it set up a two-step criterion for the uniform application of this doctrine. That is, in the first step, the Trial Court has to determine the aggravating and mitigating circumstances.
A bench comprising Justice UU Lalit, Justice S Ravindra Bhat and Justice Bela M Trivedi stated that, for mitigating circumstances, the state must produce the materials disclosing the probation officer's report, prison report and psychiatric and psychological evaluation of the accused. Upon identifying these circumstances, in the second step, the Trial Court has to consider whether the option of awarding life imprisonment has been completely foreclosed or not.
This right was then elevated as a requirement of the right to a fair trial in the Vasanta Sampat Dupare judgment in 2025. In this case, the Supreme Court allowed an Article 32 petition of Vasanta, convicted and sentenced for the rape and murder of a 4-year old girl, because the procedural safeguards established in Manoj were not followed. The Court allowed the retrospective application of Manoj Guidelines.
The report, however, suggests that out of 265 cases decided post Manoj judgment, at least 208 cases involved failure of compliance.
79 out of 83 cases decided by the Trial Court in 2025, 95.18% cases did not adhere to the constitutional requirements. This meant the death sentence awarded is illegal.
No death penalty confirmed by Supreme Court, while Trial Court continues to award death penatly
The largest number of death row prisoners is in Uttar Pradesh (151), followed by Gujarat (70), Haryana (41), Maharashtra (39), and Kerala (34).
In 2025, the Supreme Court acquitted and released 10 persons(50%) on death row out of 19 cases, the highest number since 2016. The acquittal rate at the Supreme Court over the past 10 years has been twice the confirmation rate. For the third consecutive year, the Supreme Court did not confirm any death sentence.
⇔In the last 10 years, the Supreme Court reconsidered its own confirmation in 21 cases involving 35 persons. In 15 cases, it set aside the confirmation(24 persons), and in 6 cases(11 persons), it confirmed
Out of 38 individuals acquitted by the Supreme Court between 2016 and 2025 out of 153, 27 spent between 5 and 10 years on death row.
⇔The President of India accepted only 5 mercy petitions between 2016 and 2025, and rejected 19
There seems to be some legislative push to introduce the death penalty for offences that have not fallen under its ambit.
For instance, the Himachal Pradesh Organised Crimes (Prevention and Control) Bill, 2025 has brought in the death penalty for death caused as a result of organised crime. In the last 10 years, at least 17 such Bills have been proposed.
Time taken to dispose of death sentence matters
The disposal rate of High Courts over the past decade has ranged from six months to over 10 years. The average time is 2.91 years, with the shortest time at 28 days in 2019. But the longest time has been 14.62 years in 2016.
Whereas, the average time spent on death row by a person before acquittal in the Supreme Court was 8 years, with the minimum at 3.5 years and the maximum is 20.68 years.
The Report Can Be Accessed Here