Supreme Court commutes death penalty of Rajiv Gandhi's killers to life term
[Editor: This blog has always campaigned to bring an end to the cruel custom of Death Penalty, all over the word. It is good to note that the Honourable Supreme Court of India has come up with a fantastic judgement on the petition filed by the accused. It would not be an exaggeration to mention here, that last year in February, Former Supreme Court judge Justice (retired) K. T. Thomas, who awarded the death penalty to Rajiv Gandhi's assassins in 1999, said it will be unconstitutional to hang them now after they had spent such a long period of time in prison]
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| Photo, Courtesy: NDTV |
Dhananjay Mahapatra, Feb 18, 2014: NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday commuted the death penalty of Rajiv Gandhi's killers to life term, citing the 11-year delay in deciding their mercy pleas.
With this, the three convicts on death row in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case — Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan — have been spared the gallows.
There had been inordinate delay on government and President's part to decide their mercy pleas, the SC judges said.
The apex court rejected the Centre's contention that delay in deciding mercy plea of convicts Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan did not result in agony.
We implore govt to render advice in reasonable time to the President for taking a decision on mercy pleas, the court said.
The top court has asked the government to add a new criteria for considering commuting death penalty to life imprisonment — inordinate delay in deciding mercy petitions.
Their plea was strongly opposed by the Centre which had said that it was not a fit case for the apex court to commute death sentence on the ground of delay in deciding mercy plea.
Admitting that there has been delay in deciding the mercy petitions, the government, however, had contended that the delay was not unreasonable, unexplainable and unconscionable to commute death penalty.
The counsel, appearing for the convicts, had contested the Centre's arguments, saying that they have suffered due to the delay by the government in deciding the mercy petitions and the apex court should intervene and commute their death sentence to life term.
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.
(With inputs from PTI)
