PIL seeks guidelines for time-bound disposal of mercy petitions
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, December 11
A Public Interest Litigation was filed in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Centre to frame guidelines for time-bound disposal of mercy petitions, contending that absence of specific procedure allowed a convict to take undue advantage of such a situation to effectively convert a capital punishment into a life sentence.
Filed by advocate Shiv Kumar Tripathi, the PIL said power to grant pardon is an extraordinary power and it has to be exercised by the concerned authority with “great care and caution”.
Under Article 72 of the Indian Constitution, the President has the power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any person convicted of any offence. Governors have similar powers under Article 161 of the Constitution.
A mercy plea is the last resort available to a convict after he/she has exhausted all legal options. But a decision taken by the President or a governor is subject to judicial review.
The PIL wanted the top court to ask the Centre to fix a time-frame within which mercy petitions are decided and “the consequences of not disposing of the mercy petitions within such time frame”.
“The framing of rules is necessary for the purpose of transparency,” the plea said, adding that absence of specified procedure and guidelines for time-bound disposal of mercy petitions is resulting in “arbitrariness and discrimination” in their disposal.
The plea said in some cases, due to the prolonged delay in disposal of mercy petitions, convicts had taken benefit and got their death penalty converted into life imprisonment.
“The victims and their families feel cheated in such cases. For effective disposal of the mercy petition in a time-bound manner and for transparency therein it is must that specific procedure and guidelines for disposing the mercy petitions within a time-bound period, are immediately framed and implemented,” it said.
“It also leads to undue delay in disposal of the mercy petitions and thus giving rise to public unrest and creates doubts and suspicion in the mind of public at large,” it said.
It said that in August 2008, the Ministry of Home Affairs while replying to a petition had given information to the Central Information Commission (CIC) that there is no written procedure to deal with mercy petition.
