Litigating and Researching the Death Penalty in India: Challenges, Possibilities and Limitations

Between June 2013 - May 2016, National Law University, Delhi interviewed all of India's death row prisoners and their families with the aim of documenting their socio-economic profile and mapping their interaction with the criminal justice system. This effort (the first of it's kind in India) led to the setting up of the Centre on the Death Penalty at National Law University, Delhi where over 60 death row prisoners now receive pro bono legal representation along with the Centre's efforts to deepen research into various facets of the administration of the death penalty in India. This experience over the last four years has led to invaluable lessons about the death penalty in India, the unique challenges it poses in the context of the India's criminal justice system while at the same time allowing the identification of grave issues that require urgent constitutional adjudication.

Dr. Anup Surendranath, is the director of the Centre on the Death Penalty at National Law University, Delhi where he also teaches constitutional law and legal methods as an Assistant Professor of Law. Between May 2014 to July 2015, he was the Deputy Registrar (Research) at the Supreme Court of India on invitation by the Chief Justice of India with the last instance of such an appointment being in the late 80s. Dr. Surendranath completed his legal education from the University of Oxford (2007-12) and NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad.