HC orders fresh review of 1993 blast convict Bhullar’s case

The Delhi High Court has ordered fresh assessment of the case of 1993 blast convict Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar in the upcoming meeting of the Sentence Review Board (SRB).

The court has also instructed that the minutes of the meeting, once convened, must be placed before it. The direction came during the hearing of a plea concerning the reassessment of Bhullar’s sentence and his eligibility for remission under the prison guidelines.

Bhullar has been serving a life term since his death sentence was commuted by the Supreme Court in 2014.

Meanwhile, Tarlochan Singh, a former Rajya Sabha MP and ex-chairman of the National Commission for Minorities, has written to Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, urging her to convene the SRB meeting and ensure long-delayed justice to Bhullar, who has been hospitalised for years.

Bhullar was found guilty by a designated TADA (Terrorist and Disruptive Activities [Prevention] Act) court in Delhi and sentenced to death on August 25, 2001, for the 1993 blast aimed at then Indian Youth Congress chief MS Bitta. The explosion claimed nine lives and injured more than two dozen people, including Bitta.

In March 2014, the Supreme Court commuted Bhullar’s death penalty to life imprisonment, citing delays in the disposal of his mercy petition. Bhullar had approached the top court contending that the eight-year delay in deciding his 2003 mercy plea amounted to a violation of his rights. The petition was eventually rejected by the President in 2011.

Following the commutation, Bhullar was transferred from Tihar Jail to Amritsar Central Jail in June 2015 and admitted to the psychiatry ward of Guru Nanak Dev Medical College & Hospital for treatment of a mental illness.

He was granted parole for the first time in April 2016 for 21 days, followed by several subsequent paroles. His name was also included in the Union government’s October 2019 list of eight prisoners recommended for special remission to mark the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev.