New Delhi, Jan. 23 -- The Supreme Court on Thursday questioned whether it falls within the domain of a constitutional court to decide if a less painful and more humane method of execution could replace hanging, even as the Union government told the court that the issue is under active consideration by a committee constituted at the highest level. A bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta acknowledged that the death penalty has consequences not only for the condemned prisoner but also for those tasked with carrying it out, including the hangman, but expressed reservations about whether the judiciary could direct the executive to alter the statutorily prescribed mode of execution.P8...