If in the words of Aristotle, a man is a 'social animal' then in Plato's words he is the most 'selfish animal'. But, for both the species, the center of all their activities is the society which makes it possible for them to live an orderly and secured life. Crime and criminal behavior, both being omnipotent and omnipresent have been associated with society and the individual since the history of human civilization and have created serious problems in the social order. To tackle it, State devised and introduced a sentencing policy. Out of the various forms of punishments inflicted by the State, 'capital punishment' or 'death penalty' stands distinct because of two main reasons, firstly, the punishment is irrevocable, and secondly, the punishment has a retributive nature due to which this punishment is a subject of intense debate all over the globe. An argumentative fight between Abolitionists and Retentionists is still going on this issue. One group questions its ethical and moral grounds whereas other put forward the theory of deterrence. But this debate, however, remains unresolved in the present time. Whereas the Constitution of India on one hand provides for the 'right to equality' and 'right to life and personal liberty' to the individuals respectively under Articles 14 and 21, on the other hand, individuals are asked to leave the membership of the society forever by tasting this sweetest lethal medicine in the name of 'procedure established by law' for the wrong done. The "rarest of rare" judicial phenomenon sometimes in a few cases is an alien notion the existence of which is hard to find in the contents. Many countries have abolished capital punishment completely but India is continuing with its retention policy like China. This paper mainly seeks to answer the question, should capital punishment still have the same place in this contemporary criminal justice administration system where a 'State' has transformed into a 'Modern State' and the trends of the societies have also changed. And if so, then how far by inflicting this punishment, the State has maintained to secure an individual's right of 'right to be human'? How far the Code of Hammurabi and Mosaic Law is suitable to the modern society where a teacher teaches 'hate the sin not the sinner' and judiciary too accepts 'every saint has a past and every sinner has a future'. This paper also emphasizes its genesis and the debate between Retentionists and Abolitionists on this issue with their strong pro and con arguments to reach a concrete conclusion. The Law Commission's Report has also been mentioned as a response to this issue in India. The Constitutional basis of Capital Punishment and the judicial response have also been discussed in this paper.