Larger SC bench to hear pleas Oct. 22
A larger bench of the Supreme Court will hear from October 22 a batch of petitions seeking commutation of their death sentence into life imprisonment on account of delay in carrying out the execution following the dismissal of their mercy petitions by the President.
“Death sentence matters will be taken up immediately after the Dussehra holidays from October 22,” a bench, comprising Chief Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice Ranjan Gogoi, said. The hearing by a larger bench assumes significance as on April 12, a two-judge bench had held that long delay in disposing off mercy pleas by the President or the governor of persons convicted under anti-terror laws or similar statutes cannot be a ground for commutation of death sentence.
The ruling was pronounced while rejecting the plea of Khalistani terrorist and death row convict Devinderpal Singh Bhullar. When the April 12 judgment was delivered, there were over 20 convicts facing execution. Later on, a top court bench had granted relief to a condemned prisoner M.N. Das who had sought conversion of his death sentence to life imprisonment on the ground of delay in deciding his mercy plea.
ENDS
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