Bhullar to be hanged

• SC rejects petition against rejection of mercy petition
• Delay in execution no ground for commuting death sentence
• Verdict could impact 17 others whose mercy petitions have been rejected
• There are about 400 convicts in the death row in the country

Venkat Parsa

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday handed out a historic ruling, rejecting the mercy petition of Khalistan Liberation Force terrorist Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, given death penalty for attempting on the life of the then Youth Congress president Maninderjit Singh Bitta in 1993.

This far-reaching verdict could impact cases of 17 other prisoners on death row, who have pleaded against their punishment, including that of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's assassins, on the plea that delay in execution is ground for commutation of the sentence. The Supreme Court has ruled that delay in execution cannot be a ground for commutation.

The family of Bhullar had filed a petition that prolonged incarceration of a death row convict awaiting execution amounted to cruelty and violated the fundamental right tolife under Article 21 of the Constitution.

The Supreme Court Bench comprising Justice G S Singhvi and Justice S J Mukhopadyay said the petitioner had failed to make a case for commuting death sentence to life imprisonment. Reading the judgment for the Apex Court Bench, Justice G S Singhvi said, "The petitioner has not been able to make out a case for commuting his sentence." The Apex Court ruled that neither his lengthy wait in prison nor his apparent mental problems were reasons to set aside the death sentence.

Soon after being awarded the death sentence, Bhullar had filed his mercy petition on January 14, 2003, which was rejected by the President on May 25, 2011. Then he moved the Supreme Court, challenging the rejection of his mercy plea by the President, which has now come to a closure, with the ruling of the Supreme Court.

The point upheld by the Apex Court that a delay in the execution of sentence cannot be a ground for commuting death sentence into life term. The BJP, which was in the forefront of the demand for the execution of Afzal Guru, now finds itself in a bind. While it argued for Afzal's execution, it finds itself on the backfoot on the demands for similarly implementing the Supreme Court verdicts at least in three other cases, especially those of Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar and Balwant Singh Rajoana, besides the three assassins of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the three associates of Veerappan.

Reason is that Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, accused of attempting on the life of former Youth Congress President M S Bitta in 1993 through a powerful car-bomb that claimed nine lives and Balwant Singh Rajoana, who was the back-up human bomb for his associate Dilawar Singh Babbar, who killed the then Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh on August 31, 1995, are being backed by the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), an ally of the BJP.

Similarly, the BJP, which is courting the AIADMK led by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, has moved and unanimously passed a resolution in the State Assembly in August, 2011, seeking clemency for the three assassins of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a human-bomb at Sriperumbudur near Chennai on May 21, 1991. There are in all 400 convicts in the death row.