Convicted In 1993, Bhullar Has Been On Death Row Wait For 8 Yrs; 26 Such Cases Pending With Prez
Dhananjay Mahapatra | TNN
New Delhi: In an adverse remark on long pendency of condemned prisoners' mercy petitions, the Supreme Court on Monday expressed surprise and asked the Centre the reasons for the eight-year delay in deciding the clemency plea of 1993 Delhi car bomb blast convict Devender Pal Singh Bhullar.
An alleged Khalistan Liberation Force terrorist, Bhullar was sentenced to death for masterminding the car bomb attack on then Youth Congress president Maninderjit Singh Bitta which left nine persons dead just a stone's throw away from Parliament on September 10, 1993.
Appearing for Bhullar, senior advocate K T S Tulsi told a Bench of Justices G S Singhvi and C K Prasad that the convict has developed psychotic symptoms with suicidal risks as he was waiting in uncertainty for long on his plea for commutation of capital punishment. The Bench brushed aside the plea for stay on death penalty saying it had attained finality on March 12, 2003 when the apex court dismissed Bhullar's curative petition. But, it expressed surprise over the eight-year pendency of his mercy petition with Centre.
"We are quite surprised that Bhullar's petition is pending for more than eight years," the court said and issued notice to the Centre asking why the mercy petition had not been decided yet.
If pendency of Bhullar's mercy petition for more than eight years attracted the apex court's adverse notice, then it would surely put identical focus on the 28 such pleas pending with the government, some for over a decade.
Of the 28 petitions, 26 are with the President, including those from Rajiv Gandhi assassination condemned prisoners and Parliament attack case convict Mohammad Afzal Guru. Less than two years ago, the Supreme Court had criticised the Centre for the delay in deciding mercy petitions. On September 18, 2009, it had said, "Human beings are not chattels and should not be used as pawns in furthering some larger political or government policy."
It had said that if a prisoner was on death row for a long time, then he had a right to insist on a decision on mercy plea within a reasonable time "failing which the power should be exercised in favour of the prisoner".
"These observations become extremely relevant as of today on account of the pendency of 26 mercy petitions before the President of India, in some cases, where the courts have awarded the death sentences more than a decade ago. We, too, take this opportunity to remind the concerned governments of their obligation under the aforementioned statutory and constitutional provisions," the court had said.
"In addition to the solitary confinement and lack of privacy with respect to even the daily ablutions, the rattle on the cell door heralding the arrival of the jailor with the prospect as harbinger of bad news, a condemned prisoner lives a life of uncertainty," it had said. The 2009 judgment failed to impact the Centre as there had been a status quo relating to the pending mercy petitions. MERCILESS WAIT
A total of 28 mercy pleas pending, of which 26 are with President
Parliament attack case convict Mohd Afzal Guru on death row since
August 4, 2005
Three assassins in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case
Khalistan Liberation Force terrorist Devender Pal Singh Bhullar convicted for 1993 bomb blast in Delhi that killed 9 and injured 31 including Maninderjit Singh Bitta
Four gang members of killed forest brigand Veerappan convicted for killing 21 policemen in 1993
Four from Punjab who were given death sentence for killing 17 persons in Amritsar in 1991.
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