Union Govt to take call on Bhullar’s release, says SC

R Sedhuraman

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, December 2

The power to prematurely release Devender Pal Singh Bhullar, who is serving life term for his role in a 1993 bomb attack in Delhi, now lies with the Centre.

This has become clear following today’s judgment of a five-member Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu on the powers of the Centre and the state governments for granting remissions to convicts and ordering their early release.

The Bench ruled that in cases probed by Central agencies or filed under Central laws the power to grant remissions was with the Centre. Though Bhullar was prosecuted by the Delhi police, he was tried under the Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA), a Central law, and this implied that the Centre would be the deciding authority for grant of remissions, not the Delhi government.

Today, the SC also clarified that life sentence meant remaining in jail till natural death, but the government was free to grant remissions in the absence of a specific bar imposed by the judiciary. The other members of the Bench were Justices FMI Kalifulla, PC Ghose, AM Sapre and UU Lalit.

Bhullar is also entitled to remissions as there is no such restraint in his case. On March 31, 2014, a four-member SC Bench headed by the then CJI, P Sathasivam, commuted his death penalty and awarded him life sentence, mainly for two reasons: he had gone insane due to 19 years of incarceration and there was an unexplained eight-year delay in the disposal of his mercy petition by the government.

Arrested in January 1995 following his deportation by Germany for his role in the September 10, 1993, bomb attack in Delhi, Bhullar was sentenced to death on August 25, 2001, by a trial court, set up here under TADA.

The SC had commuted his death penalty on a curative petition filed by Bhullar’s wife, Navneet Kaur, following rejection of their earlier pleas in the form of a review petition and writ petition.