By IANS,
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Wednesday issued notice to the central government on a petition filed by an NGO seeking time-bound disposal of mercy petitions lying with President Pratibha Patil.
NGO Justice On Trial has also sought the framing of guidelines for fixing a time frame within which the mercy petitions of convicts sentenced to death should be disposed of.
Justice B. Sudershan Reddy and Justice S.S. Nijjar issued the notice on the petition by and sought the government’s response in four weeks.
The petition said that the indecision and delay by the government in deciding mercy petitions has created a huge backlog.
It also generated the impression that even after the confirmation of the death sentence by the top court, the convict could move the government for defeating the verdict.
The delay in deciding a mercy petition was not only traumatic to the convict but it could be exploited by him at a later stage to escape the capital punishment, said the petition.
The NGO said that government decisions on the mercy petition seeking commutation of death sentence could not be an arbitrary exercise of its powers.
Counsel Nachiketa Joshi, who appeared for the petitioner, said that “the government was bound to lay down its own rules of procedure to act as a guidance in exercise of its power in a just and fair manner”.
The NGO said that the undue delay in deciding the mercy petition had adverse implication for the victims, the convict and the society at large.