Sir — This refers to the report, “Information delayed is gallows denied” (August 9). The Chief Justice of India rightly granted a midnight stay on the hanging of Maganlal, guilty of murdering his five daughters out of his total eight children from his two wives, in a drunken state. Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam was also justified in commenting against ‘post-mercy rejection-jurisdiction’. The law Commission should immediately formulate specific guidelines to decide mercy petitions, as recently directed by the Supreme Court, so that important matters concerning the lives of human beings is not be left to the ‘mercy’ of some officers.
Surprisingly, different judges of the Supreme Court decide on death penalties in different ways. While the death sentence of Maganlal was confirmed despite his two wives opposing his hanging and despite his being drunk when he committed the offence, in a very surprising verdict that came three days prior to the December 16 Delhi gang rape case, the apex court held that rape-cum-murder after consuming liquor is not a ‘rarest of rare’ crime, because it was a crime committed in a drunken state.