Why is it In news?

• The SC has asked the government why can’t hanging as a means of causing death to condemned prisoners be stopped,
• Supreme Court says the condemned should die in peace.

Supreme Courts Rationale

• The condemned should die in peace and not in pain.
•  A human being is entitled to dignity even in death.
• The government should look to the “dynamic progress” made in modern science to adopt painless methods of causing death. 
• The fundamental right to life and dignity enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution also means the right to die with dignity.

It's not about Death Penalty.

• The court clarified that it was not questioning the constitutionality of the death penalty
• The debate has been well-settled by the apex court, including in Deena versus Union of India and earlier in the Bachan Singh case reported in 1980.
• Section 354 (5) — which mandates death by hanging — of the Code of Criminal Procedure has already been upheld.
• However, the provision of hanging to death may be reconsidered as “the Constitution of India is an organic and compassionate document which recognizes the sanctity of flexibility of law as situations change with the flux of time.”