Death Penalty Report 2025 Exposes Critical Gaps in India's Criminal Justice System
A comprehensive annual study conducted by The Square Circle Clinic, a criminal justice initiative of NALSAR University of Law in Hyderabad, has revealed troubling patterns in India's death penalty sentencing. The report, titled 'Death Penalty in India: Annual Statistics Report 2025' and released on February 4, documents significant discrepancies between trial court decisions and appellate court outcomes, raising fundamental questions about the reliability of convictions in capital cases.
Persistent Disconnect Between Trial and Appellate Courts
The data presents a stark picture of India's capital punishment landscape. Between 2016 and 2025, trial courts across the country imposed a staggering 1,310 death sentences. However, high courts confirmed only 106 of these sentences during the same period. Even more revealing is the Supreme Court's record: when it decided on slightly more than half of the death sentences confirmed by high courts, it upheld none of them.
This persistent gap between trial court sentencing and appellate outcomes has created what the report describes as "the largest number of persons on death row at the end of a calendar year since 2016." As of December 31, 2025, a total of 574 prisoners were awaiting execution on death row across India.
2025 Statistics Reveal Alarming Patterns
In 2025 alone, sessions courts sentenced 128 individuals to death across 94 separate cases. Yet appellate courts demonstrated a markedly different approach. High courts acquitted, commuted, remanded, or recorded abatement in most of the death sentence cases they decided during the year. The Supreme Court followed a similar pattern, with the study finding that the apex court has not confirmed a single death sentence from 2023 through 2025, even in cases where high courts had initially upheld them.
The numbers are particularly striking: in 2025, high courts acquitted 35 individuals across 22 cases. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court acquitted accused persons in more than half of the cases it decided, recording the highest number of death row acquittals in the past decade with 10 individuals being exonerated.
Systemic Failures and Human Costs
"The frequency with which death sentences are overturned at the appellate stage raises serious concerns about the reliability of convictions in capital cases," the report states unequivocally. This concern is amplified by the human cost of these judicial errors. Those acquitted by high courts spent an average of 5.17 years on death row, with several individuals remaining under death sentence for close to two decades before finally being exonerated.
Shreya Rastogi, director of litigation and forensics at The Square Circle Clinic, emphasized the systemic implications of these findings. "High rates of acquittals from death row expose a deep fracture in the criminal legal system," she stated. "When more than a third of high court confirmation cases result in acquittals, it indicates failures in investigation and prosecution that harm victims and accused alike. These errors cost people decades of their lives and freedom."
Widespread Failures Across the Justice Process
Maitreyi Misra, director of research and mitigation at The Square Circle Clinic, noted that the failures identified by the report are spread across the entire criminal justice process. "The Supreme Court itself has repeatedly pointed out failures at multiple levels — investigation agencies, prosecution, and lower courts — while acquitting people on death row," she explained.
The report's findings suggest that these systemic issues are not isolated incidents but rather represent persistent patterns that undermine confidence in capital punishment proceedings. The consistent overturning of death sentences at appellate levels indicates fundamental problems that require urgent attention from policymakers, legal experts, and judicial authorities.
As India continues to grapple with the complex ethical and practical questions surrounding capital punishment, this comprehensive study provides crucial data that highlights the need for reforms to ensure greater reliability and fairness in death penalty cases. The report serves as a critical reminder of the profound responsibility inherent in capital sentencing and the devastating consequences when the system fails to meet its own standards of justice.
