Why some Kerala judges break the nib of their pen after death verdicts

On January 20, 2025, SS Greeshma (24), who was sentenced to capital punishment by the Neyyatinkara Additional Sessions Court for the murder of Sharon Raj, joined 34 others on death row in Kerala.

Judges across Kerala often follow the solemn tradition of breaking the nib of their pens after awarding a death sentence, symbolising the gravity and finality of their verdicts.

In August 2003, Judge KK Chandradas of the Additional Sessions Court (Fast Track) in Thalassery broke the nib of his pen on his desk before leaving for his chamber. Moments earlier, he had sentenced five CPM workers to death for the brutal murder of Yuva Morcha state vice-president KT Jayakrishnan. The crime, committed in a school classroom in front of terrified students, shocked the state.

A similar scene unfolded in November 2024 at Aluva in Ernakulam, where trial court judge K Soman broke the nib of his pen after signing a 197-page judgement. He had sentenced Asafak Alam to death for the kidnapping, rape, and murder of a five-year-old girl, the daughter of a guest worker. Judge Soman handed the pen with the broken nib to court officials before retiring to his chamber.

Justice K Kemal Pasha, during his tenure as a sessions court judge, handed down death sentences to 14 convicts in 13 separate murder cases. On each occasion, he too broke the nib of his pen after signing the final judgement.

This symbolic act is said to signify the irreversibility of a death sentence. The pen used to sign the judgement, which ultimately decides the fate of a life, is broken or discarded so it will never be used for any other purpose.

Interestingly Neyyatinkara Additional District Sessions Court Judge AM Basheer, who recently sentenced SS Greeshma to death for the Sharon Raj murder case, did not observe this practice. He did not break the nib of his pen even while sentencing three people to death for the murder of Shanthakumari of Vizhinjam in Thiruvananthapuram last year.