By IANS,
New Delhi : The long pendency of the mercy plea of Khalistani terrorist Devender Pal Singh Bhullar, who is on death row over a 1993 car bomb blast at the Youth Congress office here, could not be described as an act of cruelty, the government has told the Supreme Court.
Explaining the delay in deciding the mercy plea by Bhullar, an affidavit dated Oct 14 filed by the union home ministry said that “the time taken for the disposal of mercy petitions depends upon the nature of the case and the scope of the examination to be made”.
The government filed the affidavit in response to a petition by Bhullar before the court questioning the inordinately long time of eight years taken by the government in deciding his mercy petition seeking commutation of his death sentence into life imprisonment.
Bhullar filed the mercy petition Jan 14, 2003 which was rejected by the president May 25, 2011.