The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Home Secretaries of all States to send records pertaining to the mercy petitions pending with them to the Union Home Secretary within three days through special messengers.
A Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and S.J. Mukhopadhaya gave the direction after counsel for the Union government pleaded for more time to produce the records as sought by the court since, he said, the States had not furnished details to the Centre.
Counsel said the Centre had filed details of the mercy petitions pending with the President but he could not file the details of those pending with the State Governments/Governors in the absence of any response from them.
When Justice Singhvi asked whether any effort was made by the Union Home Ministry to collect the details, he said letters were written to all State governments seeking relevant data, but there was no response. The Bench made it clear that not producing the records within three days would be at the States' own risk.
Justice Singhvi said there were cases where mercy petitions were not decided even after 11 years and there would be complaints that courts were further delaying the process, if “we don't decide them.”
The Bench is hearing mercy petitions filed by Devender Pal Singh Bhullar and others, who challenged the rejection on the grounds of inordinate delay. The convicts are pleading for commuting the death sentence into one of life imprisonment. A Special Leave Petition filed by Mahendra Nath Das — whose mercy petition was rejected by the President after an inordinate delay of 12 years — and his plea for commutation for life imprisonment has also been listed before this Bench.
A Bench of Justices A.K. Patnaik and Swatanter Kumar had referred the matter to the Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia for posting it before an appropriate Bench. Accordingly, it is listed before a Bench headed by Justice Singhvi.
Mr. Das had, in his petition, contended that the inexplicable delay in deciding his mercy petition before it was finally rejected by the President had resulted in excruciating agony and trauma for almost 12 years and this was a valid grounds for awarding life sentence.
