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The Supreme Court today indicated to the Union Government to fix some timeframe for disposal of mercy petitions filed by those facing death sentences. The Court directed the Centre to file a response to its suggestion for fixing a timeframe for disposal of mercy petitions. The Supreme Court wants that the mercy petition should be decided within three months. The apex court was considering the petition filed by the Khalistan militant Devendar Singh Bhullar, who has approached the Supreme Court for reducing his death sentence into life imprisonment on the grounds of inordinate delay in deciding his mercy petition. According to the petitioner, who was awarded capital punishment for his involvement in bomb explosion in Delhi in 1992 in which 9 people were killed and the then All-India Youth Congress president Maninderjit Singh Bitta was seriously injured, his mercy petition was pending with the President of India for the last eight years. The President has, however, recently rejected his mercy petition. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and SGPC have sought the intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for getting his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment. Similarly, the mercy petition of Afzal Guru, facing death sentence in Parliament attack case, is also pending with the President since 2006. The president is yet to decide the clemency petition of the killers of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. |
| SOURCE: UNI |
