By IANS,
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Thursday asked Chief Justice S.H.Kapadia to decide which bench will hear the petition by a death row convict seeking the commutation of his sentence to life imprisonment due to the long delay in deciding his mercy petition.
Mahindra Nath Das’s petition has also sought quashing of the president’s order rejecting his mercy petition.
A bench of Justice A.K. Patnaik and Justice Swatanter Kumar referred the matter to Chief Justice Kapadia after Solicitor General Rohinton Nariman told the court that another bench of the apex court was seized of the matter and Das’ plea should also be referred to it.
Holding that since matter was of an urgent nature, the court directed the registry to immediately place it before the chief justice.
Nariman told the court that senior counsel Shyam Divan, appearing for Das, was going to argue that since there was an inordinate delay in deciding the mercy petition, Das’ death sentence should be commuted.
Since the same issue was being adjudicated by a bench of Justice G.S.Singhvi and Justice S.J.Mukhopadhaya in a large number of other cases, Das’ plea could therefore be referred to it, he suggested.
Das was convicted and awarded the death sentence by the Kamrup (Assam) Sessions Judge Aug 18, 1996. The death sentence was confirmed by the Gauhati High Court Feb 3, 1998 and upheld by the apex court on May 14, 1999.
Das filed a mercy petition June 4, 1999 before the president, which was rejected on May 27, 2011 — a gap of 11 years, 11 months and 23 days. Das is in custody since April 24, 1996.
His plea for the commuting the death sentence to life imprisonment on grounds of delay in execution of sentence was rejected by Gauhati High Court on Jan 30, 2012. He then moved the apex court seeking the quashing of the order rejecting his mercy petition.
An expelled member of Assam Motor Workers Union, Das was facing trial for the murder of union secretary Rajen Das Dec 24, 1990. In the course of the trial, he was granted bail.
Das jumped the bail and killed Hare Kanta Das on April 24, 1996, severed his head and walked through the streets to a police station, holding the severed head in one hand and blood-covered sword in the other hand.
Hearing cases where there was inordinate delay in deciding the mercy petition, the apex court’s Nov 15, 2011 order had noted that between April 13, 2004 and May 27, 2011, the president’s secretariat had received 17 mercy petitions and 11 of them were decided at different points in time.
Noting the importance of the issue involved in the petition of Devender Pal Singh Bhullar seeking commutation of death sentence to life imprisonment on the grounds of inordinate delay in deciding his mercy petition, the court said that a large number of other persons awarded death sentence may not be, due to sheer ignorance able to file petition under Articles 72 or 161 of the Constitution or move the court seek the commutation of their death sentence.
Appointing senior counsel Ram Jethmalani and T.R. Andhyarujina as amicus curiae, the court had given four weeks time to Additional Solicitor General Harin Rawal to place before the court a compilation of the details of various mercy petitions received by the central and state governments and their status as on the date of preparation of the compilation.