M A I N   N E W S

Terrorists don’t deserve mercy, Centre tells SC
Seeks review of apex court’s order on commuting death sentence
R Sedhuraman
Legal Correspondent

Pending pleas don’t amount to cruelty: Govt In its review petition, the Centre questioned the logic that the delay in deciding mercy pleas compounded the agony of death row convicts and as such they were entitled to commutation Rather, pending mercy pleas offered a “ray of hope” to such convicts and therefore the delay could not be treated as cruelty, it contended in the review plea

Bhullar’s kin await relief The Supreme Court’s January-21 judgment granting life to 15 death row convicts formed the basis for commuting the death sentence of three Rajiv Gandhi assassins --- Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan. Devender Pal Singh Bhullar, sentenced to death in a 1993 bomb blast case in Delhi, is also pleading for relief under the verdict

New Delhi, March 1
The Centre on Saturday pleaded for a review of the Supreme Court’s January 21 judgment granting life to 15 death row convicts, contending that terrorists don’t deserve leniency.

The January 21 judgment also formed the basis for commuting the death sentence of three LTTE terrorists — Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan — involved in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Devender Pal Singh Bhullar, sentenced to death in a 1993 bomb blast case in Delhi, is also pleading for a similar case.

In the January 21 verdict, a three-member Bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam found fault with a two-judge Bench ruling on April 12, 2013 that terrorists like Bhullar had no right to plead for commutation of the death sentence awarded to them for any reason whatsoever. “It is paradoxical that people who do not show any mercy or compassion for others plead for mercy,” citing delays in the disposal of their mercy petitions, a Bench comprising Justices GS Singhvi and SJ Mukhopadhaya had remarked while rejecting Bhullar’s plea.

Disagreeing, the SC had ruled on January 21 that “we are of the view that unexplained delay is one of the grounds for commutation of sentence of death into life imprisonment and the said supervening circumstance is applicable to all types of cases including the offences under TADA.”

In its review petition filed today, the Centre said the April 12, 2013 verdict was based on the views of a Constitution Bench that terrorism should not be equated with other crimes.

The Constitution Bench had acknowledged TADA had been enacted by Parliament to prevent and deal with the peril of terrorism and its threat to law and order.

The government also questioned the logic that the delay in deciding mercy pleas compounded the agony of death row convicts and as such they were entitled to commutation. Rather, pending mercy pleas offered a “ray of hope” to such convicts and therefore the delay could not be treated as cruelty, it contended in the review plea. Among the other death row convicts who benefitted from the January 21 judgment were Haryana’s Sonia Chowdhary and her husband Sanjeev Kumar who had murdered eight members of her family in 2001.