In a lease of life for death row convict Devinderpal Singh Bhullar, the Supreme Court on Tuesday decided to hear in open court the petition by his wife to commute the death penalty awarded to him to life imprisonment on account of his mental illness and inordinate delay by President’s office to decide his mercy petition after eight years.
A four-judge bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam dealt with his curative petition in chambers and decided to give him opportunity to argue in open court and listed the matter on Friday.
The curative petition was filed by his wife Navneet Kaur. Besides CJI, the bench of Justices RM lodha, Hl Dattu and SJ Mukhopadhaya will hear the matter at 10.30 am on Friday.
Bhullar was convicted and awarded death penalty for triggering a bomb blast in Capital in September 1993 that left nine dead and two dozens injured. One of the severely injured persons was the then Youth Congress president Maninderjeet Singh Bitta. The apex court had on March 26, 2002 dismissed Bhullar’s appeal against the death sentence awarded by a trial court in August 2001 and endorsed by the Delhi High Court in 2002.
In a related development, the Court will hear on Wednesday a petition by the three assassins of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi who have sought commutation of death sentence on the ground of delay to decide their mercy petitions. Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Sidharth luthra on Tuesday sought an indulgence from Court to defer hearing by a week.
But the bench headed by the CJI rejected the request citing its recent order on mercy petitions where it chastised Centre over delay to deal with cases of mercy pleas by death row prisoners.
The judgment rendered by a three-judge bench on January 21 declared that inordinate delay to decide on mercy petitions and mental illness will be twin grounds to commute death sentence.
15 persons on death row were handed down life term by the Court as a consequence of this decision. These included four associates of slain forest brigand Veerappan.