After 11-year delay on mercy plea, SC commutes death to life imprisonment
2 May 2013 7:32 AM IST
The Supreme Court on Monday commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment of a murder convict on the ground that the President had taken eleven years to decide his mercy plea. The mercy petition of convict – MN Das – was rejected by the then President Pratibha Patil.
The apex court, last month had rejected the plea of Devinderpal Singh Bhullar, sentenced to death for killing nine people with a car bomb in Delhi in 1993 in which the then Youth Congress president M S Bitta was also injured, on the same grounds.
SC had said that commuting death sentence to life imprisonment cannot be invoked in cases where a person is convicted for terrorist activities.
A bench headed by Justice G S Singhvi allowed the plea of Das who had approached the Supreme Court for commutation of his death sentence. The Supreme Court had earlier upheld Das’s conviction in 1999. While rejecting the plea of Bhullar, the apex court had observed that India is one of the worst victims of terrorism and held that the decision of President or Governor not to entertain mercy pleas of people convicted for terrorism and other serious offences cannot be characterised as arbitrary and the court cannot exercise power of judicial review only on the ground of undue delay.
Das, while out on bail in another case, had beheaded one Harakanta Das at Fancy Bazaar in Assam and surrendered with the victim’s head on 24 April 1996. The trial court had given him death sentence in 1997.
The apex court, last month had rejected the plea of Devinderpal Singh Bhullar, sentenced to death for killing nine people with a car bomb in Delhi in 1993 in which the then Youth Congress president M S Bitta was also injured, on the same grounds.
SC had said that commuting death sentence to life imprisonment cannot be invoked in cases where a person is convicted for terrorist activities.
A bench headed by Justice G S Singhvi allowed the plea of Das who had approached the Supreme Court for commutation of his death sentence. The Supreme Court had earlier upheld Das’s conviction in 1999. While rejecting the plea of Bhullar, the apex court had observed that India is one of the worst victims of terrorism and held that the decision of President or Governor not to entertain mercy pleas of people convicted for terrorism and other serious offences cannot be characterised as arbitrary and the court cannot exercise power of judicial review only on the ground of undue delay.
Das, while out on bail in another case, had beheaded one Harakanta Das at Fancy Bazaar in Assam and surrendered with the victim’s head on 24 April 1996. The trial court had given him death sentence in 1997.
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