The report marks the 10th anniversary of the effort by the team at The Square Circle Clinic (formerly Project 39A) to document, collect, and analyse country-wide data on capital punishment. In the last ten years, 1,279 individuals have been handed the harshest punishment in the Indian criminal justice system: the death penalty. The Death Penalty in India : Annual Statistics Report (2016-2025) released on 4th February, 2026, presents an in-depth analysis of death penalty in India and maps the evolving nature of the use of capital punishment. Beyond the rhetorical debates around the death penalty, it is a culmination of 10 years of labour to visibilise the granular trends in India’s use of the death penalty.
“Efforts like these are possible only because of the generosity and work of many people who nurture and develop it. Data like this is absolutely crucial in a system which is as broken as our criminal justice system and where little is known about how it functions. The data on the death penalty that we have collected through these past 10 years reveals a system that must be very circumspect in handing out punishments as harsh as the death penalty, especially when we now know that more often than not even the determination of guilt does not survive appellate scrutiny.” – Anup Surendranath (Executive Director, The Square Circle Clinic, NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad)
“Documenting data on the death penalty has been a challenging process in the absence of any pre-existing meaningful information. It has simultaneously been necessary so that public conversations around the death penalty are based not on conjecture but on facts and actual realities of criminal justice administration. Information is the antidote to anxiety and outrage based on perceptions.” – Maitreyi Misra (Director, Research, and Mitigation, The Square Circle Clinic, NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad)
“High rates of acquittals from death row exposes a deep fracture in the criminal legal system, indicating a failure of justice for victims and accused alike. When more than 33% of High Court confirmation cases result in acquittals, it underscores the systemic failures in investigation and prosecution that must be addressed. These errors cost people decades of their lives and freedom, making the recognition of compensation for wrongful convictions urgent and morally imperative.” – Shreya Rastogi (Director, Litigation, and Forensics, The Square Circle Clinic, NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad.
“A decade of death penalty data has uncovered patterns previously unseen. These trends point to persistent procedural failures and accountability gaps in the criminal justice system.” – Aparna Bhatnagar (Associate,Research, The Square Circle Clinic, NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad)
As of 31st December, 2025, 574 (550 men and 24 women) were on death row. This is the highest the number has been since 2016. The largest number of death row prisoners are in Uttar Pradesh (151), followed by Gujarat (70), Haryana (41), Maharashtra (39), and Kerala (34). Most of those on death row (254 persons) had been convicted for the offence of murder simpliciter followed by murder involving sexual offences (213).
In 2025, trial courts across the country sentenced 128 persons to death. Three years ago, the Supreme Court in Manoj v. State of Madhya Pradesh had laid down procedural safeguards towards ensuring fair sentencing in death penalty cases. In August 2025, the Supreme Court elevated these safeguards to a fair trial right requirement in Vasanta Sampat Dupare v. Union of India. The Court held that Manoj-compliant sentencing hearings are a necessary component of the accused’s rights under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution and ordered the reopening of sentencing hearings for seven death row prisoners. Despite these clear mandates, trial courts continue to demonstrate widespread non-compliance. Of the 265 cases decided after Manoj, at least 208 (78.49%) involved unconstitutional sentencing processes. Our analysis shows that 79 out of 83 cases (95.18%) decided by trial courts in 2025 do not adhere to constitutional requirements.
In 2025, the death sentence of 10 persons (in 5 cases) was confirmed by the High Courts. From the 1310 death sentences imposed by the trial courts since 2016, the High Courts had decided 842 by the end of 2025. Of these, 70 death sentences were confirmed. The High Court acquitted in 285 death sentences. Over the past decade, the acquittal rate at the High Court has been 4 times the confirmation rate. That the acquittal rate of death row prisoners is close to four times the confirmation rate raises serious concerns regarding the health of the criminal justice system. A decade-long reckoning with the concerning manner of death penalty convictions at lower courts has led the highest Court in the land to acquit a total of 38 persons and commute the sentences of another 71. From among the death sentences imposed by the trial courts between 2016 to 2025, the Supreme Court had adjudicated 37 death sentences by the end of 2025 and confirmed none. In fact, for the third consecutive year the Supreme Court has confirmed zero death sentence cases. From a total of 153 death sentences decided by the Supreme Court in the last decade, it confirmed 19.
The acquittal rate at the Supreme Court over the past 10 years has been twice the confirmation rate. In 2025, 10 persons were acquitted from death row by the Supreme Court- the highest number of acquittals in the past 10 years. The Square Circle Clinic assisted three former death row persons who were acquitted in 2025 file writ petitions on compensation in the Supreme Court.
High Courts which 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, i..e, in over 70% cases, the Supreme Court reversed its own decision and set aside the death sentence.
The report’s audit of nation-wide court data has 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, they had each spent more than 15 years living in the wait of death. The President rejected 19 mercy petitions in the last 10 years, including the mercy petition of Ravi Ghumare which was rejected in 2025.
While there has been an attempt in the last ten years to bolster judicial protections for those entangled with capital punishment, there has also been a national legislative push to introduce the death penalty for offences that have not yet 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 past 10 years, at least 17 bills prescribing the death penalty for various offences have been proposed either by the Central government or state governments. Of these, 9 were passed into law. In 2025 Ms. Kanimozhi, MP from Tamil Nadu, introduced a private member’s bill to abolish the death penalty. She had previously introduced a similar bill in 2015.
Read the open-access report to know more about the state of capital punishment in India over the last decade here.
The Square Circle Clinic, NALSAR 