SC commutes sentences on delay in execution after tossed mercy pleas

Fifteen on death row escaped the gallows on Tuesday after the Supreme Court unanimously held undue delay in executing the sentence after the rejection of mercy petitions was unconstitutional.

"We are of the cogent view that undue, inordinate and unreasonable delay in the execution of death sentence does certainly attribute to torture, in violation of Article 21 and thereby entails as the ground for the commutation of the sentence," the judges said in the judgment written by Chief Justice P Sathasivam.

"Retribution has no constitutional value in our largest democratic country. In India, even an accused has a de facto protection under the Constitution and it is the court's duty to shield and protect the same," the judgment explained. It said when the court interfered in such matters, it was not stepping into the jurisdiction of the President or the governor.

Mental illness was another ground for commuting the penalty. The court reiterated its verdict that solitary confinement was illegal. It directed the family of the prisoner be informed if the mercy petition was rejected. The court said a prisoner be executed in 14 days of a clemency appeal being rejected. The judgment gave a list of 15, including one woman, whose death sentence had been turned into a life one.

They include Sresh, Ramji, Bilavendran, Simon, Gnanprakasam, Madiah, Praveen Kumar, Gurmeet Singh, Sonia, Sanjeev, Sundar Singh, Jafar Ali, Magan Lal Berala, Shivu and Jadeswamy. Among those who escaped the rope were four of the late sandalwood smuggler Veerappan's gang. They filed their mercy petitions in 2004 and nine years later their appeal was rejected.

They moved the Supreme Court for commutation. Among those likely to be benefited but not named in the judgment are three men from Tamil Nadu convicted for their roles in the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. Their mercy plea was filed 11 years ago by the President's office but rejected two years ago.

The mental illness gateway could help Devinderpal Singh Bhullar, convicted of triggering a bomb blast in Delhi in 1993 that killed nine. His mercy petition was rejected by the president but his family has said he was mentally ill.

Observing that while the death sentence should be passed lawfully, the execution of the sentence must also be in consonance with the constitutional mandate and not in violation of its principles, the court said. The only caveat was  that the nature of delay i.e. whether it is undue or unreasonable must be appreciated based on the facts of individual cases and no exhaustive guidelines can be framed in this regard.