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Death sentence may be changed to
life term, suggests India's top court
WSN Network
 NEW DELHI: Known
for its spasmodic approach on the issue and propelled often by the
conveniences of the politics of the moment,
India
may soon have to take a decision about the death row convicts. While
the campaign for removing capital punishment from the statute books
remains only a mute voice, there is no dearth of those demanding
death for people sentenced by the courts.
The issue is of
significant interest to the Sikh community with not just Prof
Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar on the death row but also Jagtar Singh
Hawara, Balwant Singh and some others.
Now, the Supreme
Court has said the government must not sit on mercy petitions of
people like Afzal Guru — sentenced to death in the 2001 Parliament
attack case — for too long.
But in remarks
that may align the Supreme Court with the latest debate on human
rights, it said death row convicts should be entitled to get the
sentence changed to life imprisonment.
Settle the issue
within a reasonable period of time, ruled a bench of justices H.S.
Bedi and J.M. Panchal on Friday. The details of the order were
released later.
The court was
dealing with an appeal from a Madhya Pradesh man, Jagdish, sentenced
to death for killing his wife and five children in 2005.
 Saying that
human beings must not be used as pawns to further some larger
political goal, the bench observed a convict on death row had the
right to an early decision on his/her mercy petition.
The bench did
not mention any case other than Jagdish’s by name. But it said there
were 26 people on death row whose mercy petitions were awaiting
decision.
“The condemned
prisoner and his suffering relatives have, ... a very pertinent
right in insisting that a decision in the matter be taken within a
reasonable time, failing which the power should be exercised in
favour of the prisoner.”
Reminding the
government of its constitutional obligations, the bench said the
observations “become extremely relevant as ... in some cases the
courts had awarded the death sentences more than a decade ago”.
The Supreme
Court had upheld Guru’s death sentence on August 4, 2005. His review
petition and curative petition (last legal recourse) were dismissed
in September 2006 and January 2007.
The court told
the government its failure in taking timely decisions amounted to a
violation of condemned prisoners' right to live with dignity under
Article 21 of the Constitution.
23
September 2009
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