The Supreme Court on Friday rejected Khalistani terrorist Devinderpal Singh Bhullar’s plea for commutation of his death sentence and said that keeping in view the peculiar facts of the case, “we are convinced that there is no valid ground to interfere with the ultimate decision taken by the President not to commute the sentence of death awarded to the petitioner to life imprisonment”.
The bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and S.J. Mukhopadhya said the apex court’s earlier judgments holding that a long delay may be one of the grounds for commutation of a death sentence cannot be invoked in cases where a person is convicted for an offence under TADA or similar statutes.
In the judgment, which paves the way for Bhullar’s execution and could impact 16 other death row convicts, including the three facing execution after conviction in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, the Supreme Court said it was a “paradox” that those who had not shown any mercy to their victims were now pleading for clemency.
The apex court also criticised people fighting for terrorists’ human rights and said, “While doing (killing) so they do not show any respect for human lives. Before killing the victims, they do not think even for a second about the parents, wives, children and other near and dear ones of the victims. The families of those killed suffer the agony for their entire lives, apart from financial and other losses. It is paradoxical that the people who do not show any mercy or compassion to others plead for mercy and project the delay in disposal of a mercy petition as a ground for commutation of the sentence of death,” the bench said.
The apex court also justified the practice of capital punishment in India, particularly in view of growing terrorist activity that has cost the lives of hundreds of innocent civilians and uniformed personnel.
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For terrorist, death stays death
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