Mamla Legal Hai, a Hindi-language Netflix show, portrays a judge struggling to decide whether a 24-year-old convict deserves the death penalty or a chance at reform. The story explores the “rarest of rare” doctrine and the influence of public outrage and “collective conscience” in sentencing. A Kolkata-based lawyer argues that this imaginary “society” and its myth of “collective demand,” often invoked to justify capital punishment, are at odds with a justice system meant to believe in reform and rehabilitation.
