Centre to decide on Bhullar’s fresh mercy plea in two weeks

February 26, 2014 07:18 pm | Updated November 17, 2021 01:54 am IST - New Delhi

Devinderpal Singh Bhullar. File photo

Devinderpal Singh Bhullar. File photo

The Centre on Wednesday informed the Supreme Court that it would communicate to President Pranab Mukherjee its decision in two weeks on the fresh mercy petition of Navneet Kaur, wife of Devender Pal Singh Bhullar, seeking commutation of his death sentence into life term on medical grounds.

Attorney-General G.E. Vahanvati made the submission before a Bench of Chief Justice P. Sathasivam and Justices R.M. Lodha, H.L. Dattu and S.J. Mukhopadhaya at the hearing of a curative petition from Ms. Kaur.

In her petition, she cited the court’s January 21 judgment that held inordinate delay in disposal of mercy petitions by the government could be a ground for commutation of the death sentence and granted life term to 15 condemned prisoners, including four aides of the forest brigand Veerappan.Mr. Vahanvati said a two-judge Bench of the Supreme Court upheld Bhullar’s death penalty on April 12, 2013, and the very next day, his wife sent a mercy petition to the President. This fact was not disclosed in the curative petition. In his present medical condition, he said, Bhullar could not be executed. Without going into the technicalities of the curative petition, the matter should be left to the President to decide on the mercy petition rather than the court deciding it on merits.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.