Condemned to be hanged despite his mental illness, the convict on death row Devenderpal Singh Bhullar is all set to receive a fresh consideration on his mercy plea. On Friday, the Supreme Court agreed to take up his curative petition for commuting his death sentence to life on January 28.
The apex court on April 12 last year had rejected Bhullar’s plea to be spared the gallows on the twin grounds of mental illness and inordinate delay on part of President to consider his mercy petition. His case was treated on a different footing as it related to terrorism offence.
But with the recent apex court verdict of January 21 this distinction was held to be unconstitutional. Senior advocate KTS Tulsi appeared before a bench headed by CJI to mention Bhullar’s curative petition. CJI P Sathasivam indicated that since the January 21 order, notice has to be issued on the curative appeal. At present, the l-G has ordered his death sentence to be put on hold.
The apex court commuted death sentence of 15 prisoners to life on the ground that any inordinate delay on part of the Centre or President to decide on mercy petition will result in commuting of death sentence. “We are of the view that unexplained delay is one of the grounds for commutation of sentence of death into life imprisonment and the said supervening circumstance is applicable to all types of cases including offences under TADA. The only aspect the courts have to satisfy is that the delay must be unreasonable and unexplained or inordinate at the hands of the executive,” the bench said.
Bhullar was sentenced to death for masterminding a bomb blast in the Capital in 1993 which resulted in nine deaths and injuries to several persons including the then Youth Congress president Maninderjit Singh Bitta.