Revision as of 20:10, 25 January 2014

1991: President’s delay on mercy petition

Landmark order after Prez’s delay

Prafulla Marpakwar | TNN

Mumbai: While there is debate over the delay in deciding mercy petitions pending before Rashtrapati Bhavan, former President R Venkataraman faced an embarrassing situation in 1991 following an unexpected court order. The Bombay High Court commuted the death sentence of a murder convict to life in jail following the failure of the then President to take a decision on the mercy petition.

A Pune-based agricultural labourer had been involved in a murder and was given the death sentence by the trial court. Later, the high court upheld the sentence as also the apex court in 1984. The convict then knocked on the doors of Rashtrapati Bhavan with a mercy petition.

For several years, there was no response from Rashtrapati Bhavan. The convict then filed a petition before the high court, saying that it should ask the President of India to take a decision on the mercy petition as early as possible.

In 1991, Justice S W Puranik, who heard the case at length, passed a landmark order saying that, since the mercy petition had been pending before the President of India for a long time, the court was commuting the death sentence to life imprisonment. The judge observed that a mercy petition can’t be kept pending for an indefinite period and decisions on such petitions should be taken within a reasonable period of time. “We feel that mercy petitions should be disposed of within a reasonable time,’’ Puranik observed.

Now, though Puranik has retired, there is no change in his views. The former judge of the high court says the President must dispose of mercy petitions within a reasonable time, like six months to a year.

Reviewing the President’s decision

2013: The government seeks a review of the SC’s May 1, 2013 judgment

Govt: SC can’t review President’s mercy plea calls

Dhananjay Mahapatra TNN

The Times of India 2013/07/07

New Delhi: The Centre is all set to legally lock horns with the Supreme Court by questioning the court’s powers to call for judicial scrutiny of the President’s exercise of constitutional power to grant pardon or commute sentences of condemned prisoners.

“The decision of the President under Article 72 of the Constitution, either accepting or rejecting a petition, is a sovereign act. This sovereign act is performed after the courts have given their verdict and this sovereign act cannot be subjected to review by the Courts,” the Centre said.

The government said this in its petition seeking review of the SC’s May 1 judgment, commuting the death sentence of double murder convict M N Das to life.

MERCY PETITION ‘Presidential delay no case for plea review’

New Delhi: Delay by the President in consideration of a mercy plea cannot be ground for the Supreme Court to reopen cases of death penalty, the government has said in a review petition in the apex court.

“Once the mercy petition has been decided by the highest constitutional authority, the President of India, the courts should not allow reopening of the case, as the case has achieved its finality. Otherwise, reopening of the cases would be unending and it may never attain finality,” the Centre said in its petition seeking review of the SC’s May 1 judgment commuting the death sentence of double murder convict M N Das to life. The court had done so on the ground that there was inordinate and inexplicable delay on President’s part to reject his mercy plea.

“Entertaining of an appeal after the President has rejected the mercy petition also amounts to reopening the case,” the government said. While saying it had fully explained the decade-long movement of Das’s mercy plea file both in the ministry of home affairs and the President’s Secretariat, the Centre, for the first time, questioned the apex court’s jurisdiction to reopen cases of death penalty after rejection of mercy pleas by President.

The petition was also aimed at curbing the increasing trend among condemned prisoners to move high courts the apex court after rejection of their mercy pleas by Governor or President.

In 2013 the SC had rejected Delhi blast convict Devenderpal Singh Bhullar’s plea for commutation of death penalty to life sentence. However, it accepted Das’s plea on the ground that there was an 11-year delay in deciding his mercy plea by the President.

The Centre did not forget to rub in the delay on the judiciary’s part either in deciding murder cases, from trial stages and appeals through the HC up to the SC. Why it is that adverse view was taken of the delay by the executive in deciding the mercy plea and not that of the judiciary, it asked.

“No distinction can be drawn between the delay during the trial and the delay in considering the mercy petition by President. It cannot be said that delay during the trial is justified and the delay by President in consideration of the mercy petition is not justified,” the Centre said.

It said as soon as the SC rejects an appeal against death sentence, the prisoner goes into mental agony recognizing that he had inched closer to the hangman’s noose. But since the execution is stayed during the pendency of mercy pleas, delay in deciding such mercy petitions actually keeps alive the ray of hope for life in the condemned prisoner. So, delay in deciding mercy pleas does not cause any additional mental agony for the condemned prisoner, the Centre reasoned.

Jan 2014: The judgement of the Supreme Court

SC gives life to 15 after Prez okayed death

Says Delay, Mental Illness Valid Grounds

Dhananjay Mahapatra TNN The Times of India

New Delhi: In an unprecedented judgment, the Supreme Court on Tuesday freed 15 condemned prisoners — each awarded death sentence for multiple brutal murders — from the fear of the noose by commuting their punishment to life term, saying the President took an inordinately long time to reject their mercy pleas.

The court came to the rescue of the 15, some of whom had been served with execution warrants, on two grounds — “inordinate, undue and unexplained” delay in disposal of their mercy pleas and “non-consideration of their mental illness”.

The court also fixed a mandatory 14-day gap between rejection of a mercy petition and the hanging to allow the convict to prepare for death and meet his family for the last time.

A bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam and Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Shiva Kirti Singh said, “Keeping a convict in suspense while consideration of his mercy petition by the President for many years is...an agony for him/ her. It creates adverse physical conditions and psychological stresses on the convict under sentence of death.”

Authoring the 157-page judgment for the bench, Justice Sathasivam said, “Indisputably, this court, while considering the rejection of the clemency petitions by the President, cannot excuse the agonizing delay caused to the convict only on the basis of gravity of crime”. It affected their right to life, he said.

While 13 were spared the noose for delay in disposal of mercy pleas, ranging from six-and-a-half years to 12, the court found two others to be mentally ill.

SPARED NOOSE

Suresh (60) and Ramji (45) Wiped out family of Suresh’s brother. In jail for 17 yrs. Delay in deciding on mercy plea | 12 years

Bilavendran (55), Simon (50), Gnanprakasam (60), Madiah (64) | Veerappan aides. Jail | 20 yrs Plea delay | 9 yrs

Praveen Kumar (55) Murdered 4 of a family. Jail | 15 yrs 9 mths Plea delay | 9.5 years

Gurmeet Singh (56) Murdered 13 of a family. Jail | 26 years Plea delay | 7 years 8 months

Sonia (30), Sanjeev Kumar (38) Killed 6 of family. Jail | 12 yrs Plea delay | 6 years

Jafar Ali (48) Killed wife and 5 daughters Jail | 11 years 5 mths Plea delay | 9 years

Shivu (31) & Jadeswamy (25) Rape-cum-murder of minor. Jail | 12 years Plea delay | 6.5 years

‘Insanity is a crucial factor to consider’

New Delhi: Holding that delay in disposal of mercy petitions was a ground for commutation of death sentences, the Supreme Court on Tuesday laid down several guidelines to ensure that even condemned prisoners got a humane death.

A bench comprising CJI P Sathasivam and Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Shiva Kirti Singh said a minimum 14-day gap should be given between intimation of rejection of mercy petition to the condemned prisoner and the execution.

The SC also laid down elaborate guidelines to speed up the process for presidential consideration of mercy pleas and said each of them was entitled to free legal aid from the state to help them prepare mercy petitions and challenge their rejection.

Commuting the death sentence of two prisoners who had developed mental illness, the bench said, “The direction of United Nations International Conventions, to which India is a party, clearly shows that insanity/mental illness/ schizophrenia is a crucial supervening circumstance, which should be considered by this court in deciding whether in the facts and circumstances of the case of death sentence could be commuted to life imprisonment. To put it clear, insanity is a relevant supervening factor for consideration by this court.”

Delays in the disposal of mercy pleas

Mercy plea disposal delay a recent trend

Dhananjay Mahapatra TNN

The Times of India January 2014

New Delhi: Mercy petitions by condemned prisoners used to be decided within a maximum of 11 months till the 1980s but of late, it has become a trend to keep it pending with the President or home ministry for up to 12 years, the Supreme Court noticed much to its surprise.

While commuting the death penalty of 15 convicts to life imprisonment on the ground of “unexplained and inordinate delay” in deciding mercy pleas, which were kept pending for six to 12 years, the SC referred to a compilation of rate of disposal of mercy petitions in the past.

A bench of CJI P Sathasivam and Justices Ranjan Gogoi and S K Singh said, “Mostly, until 1980, the mercy petitions were decided in minimum of 15 days and maximum of 10-11 months. Thereafter, from 1980 to 1988, the time taken in disposal of mercy petitions gradually increased to an average of four years.”

The bench found that the apex court delivered two judgments, one in 1983 (Vatheeswaran case) and another in 1988 (Triveniben case), developing the jurisprudence of commuting death sentence because of undue delay in disposal of mercy petitions and directing the authorities to take expeditious decision on such pleas by condemned prisoners.

These two judgments reduced the time taken for deciding mercy petitions from 1989 to 1997 and the average period for disposal of such pleas came down to five months from the earlier four years.

Justice Sathasivam, writing the judgment for the bench, lamented that governments had reverted to their old habit of sitting on mercy pleas. “History seems to be repeating itself as now a delay of maximum 12 years is seen in disposing of mercy petitions under Article 71 (by the President) and Article 161 (by the governor) of the Constitution,” he said.

The bench said, “We believe mercy petitions under Articles 72/161 can be disposed faster … if the procedure prescribed by law is followed in verbatim. Although no time frame can be set for the President... we can request the concerned ministry (home affairs) to follow its own rules rigorously which can reduce.... the delay caused.” It added, “We are of the view that undue, inordinate and unreasonable delay in execution of death sentence does attribute to torture ... and thereby entails as ground for commutation of sentence. However, the nature of delay, whether it is undue or unreasonable, must be appreciated based on facts of individual cases and no exhaustive guidelines can be framed in this regard.”

Govindasamy: mercy after 22 years on death row

After 22 years on death row, he got mercy

Viju B | TNN

Mumbai: He spent the best years of his life on the verge of hope and despair. But for R Govindasamy, who is currently jailed in Coimbatore, the hangman’s noose is no longer a nightmare. Govindasamy, who was sentenced to die, got a reprieve last year [2006 0r 2008] when his punishment was commuted to life imprisonment.

The President of India, after hearing Govindasamy’s mercy petition for the second time, commuted the sentence to a life term. Data from the President of India’s Secretariat shows that Govindasamy was on death row for 22 years after the trial court sentenced him on June 24, 1987. The Erode resident had been arrested for murdering his paternal uncle Nagamalai Gounder, the uncle’s wife Ponnuthai Ammal, their two daughters and a son over a land dispute in Kondayampalayam village in Tamil Nadu.

“This was a tragic case in which the accused, who hailed from a very poor family, had allegedly killed his relatives as they had been accused of usurping his property,’’ said Chennai-based B Suresh, president of the People Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL), which took up Govindasamy’s case.

A PUCL committee, which recorded the statements of villagers in the mercy petition, said Govindsamy was a simpleton whose uncle had allegedly tortured Govindasam’s parents and, on the fateful day, forced them to sign a paper to usurp their property. “We requested in the plea that the President should look into the social and economic background of the person. The apex court gave an order looking at the legal side of the case. But we asked the President to consider the socio-economic background of the person and his conduct in prison,’’ said Suresh.