The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition seeking to abolish the existing practice of executing death row convicts by hanging and replace it with less painful methods such as intravenous lethal injection, news agency PTI reported. A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said its verdict would not prevent the Centre from undertaking a comprehensive review of the existing method of execution through an expert body. The review could examine whether any alternative method of execution better serves the constitutional objective of minimising unnecessary pain while preserving the dignity of a condemned prisoner. The bench delivered its verdict on a plea filed in 2017 by senior advocate Rishi Malhotra, seeking the removal of hanging as the prescribed mode of execution for death row convicts. The petition had sought the abolition of hanging and its replacement with less painful methods such as “intravenous lethal injection, shooting, electrocution or gas chamber”. During the arguments, Malhotra had submitted that at least an option should be given to a condemned prisoner to choose between hanging and …