By The Law Advice | October 14, 2026
The death sentence awarded to Muskan Rastogi in the Meerut blue-drum murder case has brought renewed attention to the history of capital punishment for women in India. While Indian courts have sentenced several women to death over the decades, the number of women actually executed remains exceptionally low.
Available historical accounts identify Rattan Bai Jain as the only woman executed in independent India, having been hanged at Tihar Jail on January 3, 1955. Meanwhile, recent research records women who have faced capital punishment at different stages of the judicial process.
This raises three important questions: How many women have received death sentences? How many remain on death row? And how many have actually been hanged?
1. How Many Women Have Been Executed in India?
Since Independence, India has executed only one woman, according to available historical records.
Rattan Bai Jain: The First and Only Woman Executed
Rattan Bai Jain was convicted in a case involving the poisoning and killing of three girls. Following her conviction and the exhaustion of her legal challenges, she was executed at Tihar Jail in Delhi on January 3, 1955.
Her execution remains a singular event in the history of capital punishment for women in independent India. No subsequent execution of a woman has been recorded in the historical accounts cited by the available research.
It is important to distinguish this figure from the total number of women sentenced to death. A death sentence imposed by a trial court does not automatically result in execution.
2. How Many Women Have Been Awarded the Death Penalty?
There is no verified, consolidated all-time figure in the sources reviewed that establishes the total number of individual women sentenced to death by Indian courts since Independence.
The National Law University Delhi's Project 39A, now known as the Square Circle Clinic, has published annual death penalty statistics since 2016. Its research provides detailed information about death sentences, appellate decisions, commutations, acquittals and the number of prisoners currently on death row. However, figures for particular years or periods must not be presented as the cumulative total since 1947.
The available data nevertheless establishes the scale of the issue.
These figures illustrate why an accurate all-time total requires a consolidated historical database that accounts for individual prisoners, multiple death sentences in the same case, and sentences subsequently overturned or commuted.
3. How Many Women Are Currently on Death Row?
According to the Square Circle Clinic's Death Penalty in India: Annual Statistics Report 2025, published in February 2026, 24 women were on death row as of December 31, 2025. They formed part of a total death-row population of 574 prisoners, comprising 550 men and 24 women.
A separate report published by The Indian Express in February 2026 identified 21 women among 571 prisoners on death row at the time covered by its reporting. The difference reflects the need to specify the reference date and dataset when citing death-row figures.
These numbers do not represent the total number of women who have ever received the death penalty. They represent women whose death sentences remained in force at the relevant reporting date.
The legal position of a prisoner may change following an appeal, review petition, mercy petition, acquittal, commutation or other judicial order.
4. Why Does a Death Sentence Not Automatically Lead to Execution?
Under India's criminal justice system, a death sentence imposed by a Sessions Court is subject to confirmation by the High Court under Section 366 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, or the corresponding provisions of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, as applicable.
The convict may also pursue further remedies before the Supreme Court and seek mercy from the constitutional authorities under the applicable legal framework.
A death sentence can therefore undergo several stages of judicial scrutiny. It may be confirmed, commuted to life imprisonment, or set aside through acquittal or other judicial relief.
The Square Circle Clinic's 2025 report noted that the Supreme Court did not confirm any death sentence for the third consecutive year, from 2023 through 2025. It also reported that the Supreme Court acquitted 10 people from death row in 2025.
These developments underline the importance of distinguishing between a sentence awarded at trial and a sentence that has survived the appellate process.
5. What Does the Data Tell Us?
The history of women facing capital punishment in India presents a striking contrast: women have received death sentences in serious criminal cases, yet only one woman is recorded as having been executed since Independence.
The figures must, however, be read carefully. The number of women sentenced to death during a particular year, the number currently awaiting execution and the cumulative number of women ever sentenced to death measure different things.
Without a verified, consolidated historical total, it would be misleading to state a precise number of all women sentenced to death since 1947. The available research provides reliable snapshots of particular periods and the current death-row population, but those figures cannot be added together to produce an all-time total.
Conclusion
As of October 14, 2026, the available historical record identifies one woman executed in independent India: Rattan Bai Jain, who was hanged in 1955. The Square Circle Clinic's latest annual report records 24 women on death row as of December 31, 2025, while its 2025 statistics show that trial courts sentenced 10 women to death during that year.
The precise cumulative number of women sentenced to death since Independence remains unverified in the consolidated sources reviewed. That distinction is essential to reporting the history of capital punishment accurately and responsibly.
Sources and Further Reading
1. The Square Circle Clinic, Death Penalty in India: Annual Statistics Report 2025 (2026).
2. The Square Circle Clinic, Death Penalty — research and annual statistics.
3. The Indian Express, “From Terror Blasts to Honour Killings: The 21 Women on Death Row in India” (2026).
4. NDTV India, report on Rattan Bai Jain and the history of women's executions in India (2026).
5. Amar Ujala, explainer on women sentenced to death and executions in India (October 14, 2026).
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