Court verdict

In his analytical article “Succumbing to the bogey of fear” (April 26 ), Anup Surendranath has raised valid points on the Supreme Court’s verdict in Devender Pal Singh Bhullar’s case, confirming his death sentence on a narrow ground that differentiates terrorists and other prisoners on death row.

The Constitution should remove the power of the President/Governor to pardon those sentenced to death by the Supreme Court and replace it by a provision for review by a Bench of, say, nine or 11 judges of the Supreme Court. The review judgment should be final and enforced by the authorities. The question of delay in carrying out the death sentence will not arise.

G.M. Rama Rao,

Visakhapatnam

The author is right when he says “The extremely strong suggestion that the cause of protecting the constitutional rights of ‘terrorists’ must not be espoused is unbecoming of the Supreme Court of the world’s largest democracy.” Denying a citizen the protection of the Constitution just because he denies its legitimacy amounts to taking revenge, not doing justice.

Baikadi Suryanarayana Rao,

Bangalore

The rarest of rare cases should be viewed on a case-by-case basis and the Court is doing precisely that. A system that has uniform rules for all death row convicts on commutation is not desirable.

M.S. Sagar Reddy,

Secunderabad