New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday commuted the death penalty of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s assassins to life imprisonment. The death sentence has been commuted on grounds of delay in deciding their mercy plea.
The judgement was delivered by a bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam, which had reserved its verdict on the plea of three convicts – Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan – on February 4. The court has pronounced that the three will stay in the jail till the end of their life.
The bench cited 11-years delay on the part of the Centre in deciding their mercy plea. The court has rejected the Centre’s contention that delay in deciding the mercy plea of convicts Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan did not result in agony.
“We implore government to render advice in reasonable time to the President for taking a decision on mercy pleas,” the bench said. “We are confident that the mercy plea can be decided much faster than what is being done now,” the bench observed.
The apex court has said that the argument that convicts are under obligation to prove suffering is unknown to law. There is no requirement for a death row convict to prove specific ill-effect or suffering as a prerequisite for commutation of death penalty, the court observed.
The convicts were given the death penalty in 2000 and their mercy petition was rejected by former President Pratibha Patil in 2011. Their plea was opposed by the Centre, which said that it was not a fit case to commute the death sentence.
Former Attorney General G Vahanvati had argued that the convicts were leading full lives in jail without feeling any remorse. However, the counsel appearing for the convicts had argued that they have suffered psychologically because of the delay.
The convicts had submitted that mercy plea of other condemned prisoners, which were filed after them, were decided but their petitions were kept pending by the government. The apex court had in May 2012 decided to adjudicate the petitions of Rajiv Gandhi killers against their death penalty and had directed that their plea, pending with the Madras High Court, be sent to it.
The court had passed the order on a petition by one LK Venkat, seeking transfer of their plea out of Tamil Nadu on the ground that free and fair hearing would not be possible in the state due to the surcharged atmosphere in favour of the convicts.
The Madras High Court had earlier stayed their hanging slated for September 9, 2011 and issued notice to the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government. Their main contention was that the delay of 11 years and four months in disposal of the mercy petitions made the execution of the death sentence “unduly harsh and excessive,” amounting to violation of their right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution.
The apex court had on January 21 ruled that delay by the government in deciding mercy plea of death row convicts can be a ground for commuting their sentence and had granted life imprisonment to 15 condemned prisoners, including four aides of forest brigand Veerappan. The court had held that prolonging execution of capital sentence has a “dehumanizing effect” on condemned prisoners who have to face the “agony” of waiting for years under the shadow of death during the pendency of their mercy plea.
Courtesy:Ibnlive
