High Courts have confirmed only 10% of death sentences since 2016: Square Circle Clinic report

Of the 1,085 death sentences that High Courts across India decided over the last decade, only 106 or 9.77% sentences were confirmed.

Since 2016, the High Courts have acquitted 376 or 34.65% of those who were handed death sentences by trial courts. Death sentences in 515 or 47.46% cases were commuted by High Courts.

According to the NALSAR University's Square Circle Clinic’s Death Penalty in India: Annual Statistics Report, the figures at the Supreme Court are equally stark.

Over the past decade, the Supreme Court acquitted 38 of the 153 death row convicts that approached it. In 2025 alone, the Supreme Court acquitted death row prisoners in 10 out of the 19 death penalty cases it heard - the highest number of acquittals in the past 10 years. The Supreme Court has also not confirmed a single death sentence since 2023.

However, the overall death row population has increased from 2016, when there were 400 persons on death row. At the end of 2025, 574 persons were on death row at the end of 2025 - the largest death row population in at least a decade.

That the acquittal rate of death row prisoners is close to four times the confirmation rate at High Courts and two times the confirmation rate at the Supreme Court, raises serious concerns regarding the health of the criminal justice system.

Over the last decade, trials courts in India sent 1,279 persons to the gallows in 822 cases.

According to the Square Circle Clinic's study of cases from the past decade, trial courts have repeatedly failed to adhere to the sentencing guidelines. This has seemingly continued even after the Supreme Court's 2022 guidelines laid down in Manoj v. State of MP, which, among others, mandated comprehensive consideration of mitigating circumstances before sentencing.

"Between 2023-2025, trial courts decided 265 cases and in at least 96.29% cases (216), the sentencing hearings were not conducted in compliance with Manoj, and should therefore be considered. In 2025, of the 94 cases (128 persons) in which trial courts imposed the death sentence, sentencing hearings were non-compliant with constitutional requirements in at least 79 cases," the report states.

The highest number of death sentences were given by sessions courts in Uttar Pradesh (28), Karnataka (15) and West Bengal (14). Murder simpliciter comprised 61.72% of all cases in which death sentence was imposed, followed by murder involving sexual offences occupying 35.11% of the cases.

It is at the High Court that the incongruity of trial court sentencing is most highlighted.

As per Section 366 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and Section 407 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhitha (BNSS), High Courts must examine all cases in which the death sentence is imposed by sessions courts to guard against serious miscarriages of justice.

The number and proportion of confirmations of death sentences by High Courts have steadily declined over the past decade, dropping from 14.2% (15 death sentences) in 2016 to 7.6% (10) in 2025.

Since 2020, the High Courts have not confirmed more than 10 death sentences in a calendar year. The most number of confirmations cumulatively across the years was from Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra (17 confirmations each).

In the past 10 years, High Courts have remanded cases to sessions courts every single year.

In 2025 itself, 85 death sentence cases were disposed of by High Courts. 35 persons across 22 total cases (25.88%) were acquitted and the death sentences of 10 persons in 5 cases (7.63%) were confirmed in the past year. High Courts commuted the death sentences of 79 persons across 57 cases (70.31%).

Hence, the High Court set aside death sentences for 90% of the death sentence references it considered in 2025.

As for the Supreme Court, over the last decade, it decided a total of 153 death sentences across different stages. The Court commuted 71 sentences (46.40%), confirmed 19 (12.41%) and acquitted 38 persons (24.83%).

High Courts that saw the highest proportion of their death penalty confirmations reversed by the Supreme Court leading to an acquittal were: Uttarakhand (20%), Allahabad (13%), Punjab & Haryana (10%) and Madras (10%).

Between 2016-2025, the Supreme Court had the occasion to reconsider its own confirmations in 21 cases. In 15 of those (over 70% cases), the Court reversed its own decision and set aside the death sentence.

The report’s audit of nation-wide court data revealed that of the 38 individuals acquitted by the Supreme Court between 2016 and 2025, 27 spent between 5 to 10 years on death row. In this same time period, the President of India accepted mercy petitions of 5 prisoners. By the time mercy was granted, more than 15 years had passed. The President rejected 19 mercy petitions in the last 10 years, including the mercy petition of Ravi Ghumare in 2025.

In 2025, the apex court acquitted 10 death row prisoners - the highest in a decade. It has not confirmed a single death sentence in the past three years.

"This discrepancy across courts has resulted in the wrongful incarceration of people on death row for an average of 9.42 years across the decade," the report states.