Death Row Criminals - Mercy Petition

Decide fast on death row convicts: SC

Abraham Thomas | New Delhi

Don’t treat them as pawns to suit political purposes, Govt told

In a direction that is bound to revive the debate on delay in disposing of the mercy petition of Parliament attack convict Mohammad Afzal Guru, the Supreme Court has said that the authorities “must act swiftly” in deciding the petitions of death convicts and the Government should not treat them as “chattels and pawns” to suit its political purposes.

Taking strong exception to the delay on part of the Government to dispose of mercy petitions filed by death convicts, the SC has asked the Centre to take note of the plight of these convicts for whom each passing day becomes an “agonising” wait.Dismissing an appeal filed by a man sentenced to death for murdering his wife and five children, a Bench of Justices HS Bedi and JM Panchal said, “We must say with the greatest emphasis that human beings are not chattels and should not be used as pawns in furthering some larger political or Government policy.”

The Bench’s remark is bound to revive debate on the pending mercy plea of Mohammad Afzal, who was ordered to be hanged in 2006 by the Supreme Court. However, he continues to survive, with his mercy appeal still pending decision. Noting that in some cases mercy pleas were not decided for over a decade, an anguished Bench noted, “We take this opportunity to remind the Governments concerned of their obligations under the aforementioned statutory and constitutional provisions.” As many as 26 mercy appeals are pending with the President.

The court even made out a case for a death row prisoner to claim advantage of lesser punishment in the event his mercy plea gets delayed for years altogether. Making this proposal, the Bench said, “The condemned prisoner and his suffering relatives have, therefore, 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.”

The court was referring to the remission power of the President and Governor under Article 72 and 161 of the Constitution respectively. This power has to be exercised on the advice of the executive authority. This led the court to suggest that it is the Government that is to be held at fault.

Asking the Government to consider the plight of the death row prisoners, the Bench observed, “Those of us who have had the occasion to inspect a jail where executions are carried out, have first-hand knowledge of the agony and horror that a condemned prisoner undergoes every day.”

In addition to the solitary confinement and lack of privacy with respect to even the daily ablutions, a condemned prisoner lives a life of uncertainty and defeat. This agony is more for a prisoner whose prison overlooks the gallows with the menacing structure facing him each day,” the Bench noted.

What compounds the agony is the plight of the prisoner’s family. “Equally, consider the plight of the family of such a prisoner; his parents, wife, children, brothers and sisters, who too remain static and in a state of limbo…and are unable to get on with life on account of the uncertain fate of a loved one,” the Bench said. The delay to act on the mercy plea leads to “indifference and ennui” among the family members, brought about by a combination of resignation, exhaustion and despair borne of the agonising wait, it noted.

See, even the Supreme Court is anguished at the feet dragging and politicking of the powers at the centre on an important issue.
A death sentence is awarded to a criminal after taking everything into consideration.
It is given in the rarest of rare cases.
After so much care, I do not see why the government should drag its feet and make the case ripe for politciking.
Rather, once the death sentence is confirmed by the Supreme Court, there should be no furher entertainment of mercy petitions.
India cannot afford to house and feed these criminals who may be used as bargaining points to get other terrorists released as happened in Dec, 1999 at Khandar, Afghanistan.Three terrorists - Masood Azhar, Omar Sheikh and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, lodged in Indian jails were exchanged for 164 persons when IC-814 was hijacked on a flight from Nepal.
Earlier too in 1989, we had the got up kidnapping of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's daughter Rubaiya and exchanging her freedom for those of five terrorists Sheikh Abdul Hameed, a JKLF “area commander” Ghulam Nabi Butt, younger brother of the late Maqbool Butt; Noor Muhammad Kalwal; Muhammed Altaf; and Javed Ahmed Zargar a Pakistani citizen.
If you ask me, Rubaiya's kidnapping, to which V P Singh succumed with great alacricity, unfit for a Prime Minister, opened the pandora's box for all future hijacking.
The government should take immediate action to dispose all the death row convicts to the gallows immediately, without any further politicking.