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Apex Court commutes death sentence on the ground of Inordinate & Unexplained Delay in Deciding Mercy Petition

Team SoOLEGAL 22 Feb 2019 12:08pm

Apex Court commutes death sentence on the ground of Inordinate & Unexplained Delay in Deciding Mercy Petition

The Supreme Court in 2009 had upheld the death sentence awarded to the accused, Jagdish. He then filed a mercy petition the next month which was rejected by President of India on 16.07.2014. his mercy petition was rejected on the ground that there was a delay of almost 5 years in deciding the mercy petition. He challenged this rejection by way of writ petition along with a review petition.

The bench comprised of Justice NV Ramana, Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Indira Banerjee. They referred to judgments in V. Sriharan alias Murugan vs. Union of India and Kumar Pal vs. Union of India. In the case, the death penalty awarded to petitioners was commuted on the ground of delay in deciding mercy petitions. The application which was filed by him in 2009 was forwarded by the Madhya Pradesh authorities to the Ministry of Home Affairs after more than 4 years on 15.10.2013. The State of Madhya Pradesh has given no explanation for the delay of more than 4 years in forwarding the mercy petition, the bench observed. The court also said that the State did not even care to file any counter affidavit in the Writ Petition even though notice was issued 4 years back. The bench said:

"The delay in forwarding the petition is totally unexplained and this Court cannot countenance an unexplained delay of more than 4 years. We are dealing here with the case of a person who has been sentenced to death. The mercy petition is the last hope of a person on death row. Every dawn will give rise to a new hope that his mercy petition may be accepted. By night fall this hope also dies. Inordinate and unexplained delay in deciding the mercy petition and the consequent delay in execution of death sentence for years on end is another form of punishment which was awarded by the Court. This Court has repeatedly held that in cases where death sentence has to be executed the same should be done as early as possible and if mercy petitions are not forwarded for 4 years and no explanation is submitted we cannot but hold that the delay is inordinate and un-explained."

The Apex Court, thus commuted death sentence awarded to Jagdish. The main basis of commutation was “inordinate and unexplained delay in deciding the mercy petition”.

Considering the gravity of the crime committed, the Court clarified that life imprisonment in the present case would mean the entire life of the petitioner. He shall not be released till his death.



Tagged: SupremeCourt   DeathSentence   MercyPetition  
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