NEW DELHI, May 1: The Supreme Court today commuted death sentence to life imprisonment on the grounds of inordinate delay of 12 long years in disposal of the mercy petition by the President.
The petitioner, Mahender Nath Das, was awarded death sentence in a double murder case in 1997.
A bench comprising Justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhyay commuted the death sentence holding that the mercy petition could be decided within a reasonable period of time. The convict cannot be kept waiting in a state of uncertainty for a very long period.
Another bench of the apex court headed by P Sathasivam had rejected last month a similar petition filed by Punjab militant Devinderpal Singh Bhullar who was also seeking commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment on the similar grounds of inordinate delay of 11 years in disposal of his mercy petition by the President.
The apex court in that case was of the opinion that those involved in terrorist activities deserve no mercy and long delay in disposal of the mercy petition is no ground for commuting the death sentence.
Nine security personnel were killed in terror attack in Delhi in 1992 and the then youth Congress President Maninder Singh Bitta was seriously injured.
(UNI)
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