Delay in disposal of mercy petitions cannot be a ground for commuting a death sentence to a life conviction. Settling the debate on this sensitive issue, the Supreme Court on Friday ordered Devender Pal Singh Bhullar to be hanged. The court rejected the plea made by him to consider commuting his sentence to life for inordinate delay by the Government and President of India to dispose off his mercy petitions.
The Court was also critical of the lack of “seriousness” on part of the Government and President’s Secretariat for not deciding 18 mercy petitions filed between 1999 and 2011 for a period ranging from one to 13 years. However, it did not fix any time-frame for disposal of mercy pleas under Constitution Article 72 (by President) and Article 161 (by Governor).
“The Government and the President’s Secretariat have not dealt with these petitions with requisite seriousness,” said a bench of Justices GS Singhvi and SJ Mukhopadhaya. It hoped that in future, the Government will decide on mercy petitions without unreasonable delay.
The decision on Bhullar has come as a setback to 17 other death row convicts whose mercy petitions are either pending or have been rejected after a long delay. The list included the associates of forest brigand Veerappan and nine others whose execution has been stayed by High Courts and the Supreme Court.
Justice Singhvi, writing the judgment for the bench said: “The exercise of power by the President or the Governor, as the case may be, not to entertain the prayer for mercy in such cases cannot be characterised as arbitrary or unreasonable and the Court cannot exercise power of judicial review only on the ground of undue delay.”
In its analysis of Bhullar’s case, the bench found it “paradoxical” how persons accused of terror acts could seek mercy on the ground of delay when they killed and maimed without any mercy.
“Such cases (of terrorism) stand on an altogether different plane and cannot be compared with murders committed due to personal animosity or over property and personal disputes,” the bench said.
The Court also sounded critical of the various organisations and individuals, who in the name of defending human rights, espouse the cause of terrorists involved in such gruesome killing and mass murders and raise voices to abolish the death penalty without concern of the numerous court decisions that approve it under the statute.
The bench felt that support for Bhullar from organisations and individuals across the globe who tried to create pressure on the Government for commuting his death penalty, also added to the delay, as both the Centre and State Government were forced to take time to consider these pleas.