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Journalism of Courage
The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the execution of Khalistani terrorist Devinderpal Singh Bhullar and sought to know from the Central and Delhi governments why his death sentence should not be commuted because of the delay in deciding the mercy plea, and in view of his mental illness.
A bench led by Chief Justice P Sathasivam also asked the director of the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS), the mental health facility where Bhullar is currently lodged, to submit the latest report of his health within a week.
The bench, also comprising Justices R M Lodha, H L Dattu and S J Mukhopadhaya, admitted the curative petition filed by Bhullar’s wife Navneet Kaur, whose plea got a fresh lease of life after a constitution bench of the apex court ruled last week that not only inordinate and unexplained delays in deciding mercy pleas, but also mental illness was a ground to ask for commutation.
“We will examine whether our earlier judgment (on the commutation of death sentence) is applicable in this case… The judgment must be applied here since it has brought in clarity of law,” said the bench, while fixing the next hearing for February 19.
The court, which had in its constitution bench judgment extensively dealt with instances where the circumstances of being on death row for too long after rejection of mercy plea, and the solitary confinement can cause mental illness. This in turn, the court ruled, would be ground for commutation of death penalty to life term.
During the proceeding, the bench also said it would have to examine the legal issue of whether a curative petition would be maintainable against a judgment which has already been overruled by a larger bench. The constitution bench verdict had overruled the previous two-judge judgment that a long delay in disposing of mercy pleas of persons convicted under anti-terror laws or similar statutes cannot be a ground for commutation of death sentence.
The bench suggested to senior advcoate K T S Tulsi, who appeared for Navneet, that he would have to show “gross miscarriage of justice” while arguing on the curative petition. “The execution was not carried out although the initial judgment was passed by this court in April last year. You should examine whether this can be an additional ground,” the court suggested.
In August 2013, the court had rejected a review petition filed by Bhullar’s wife against the SC’s April 2013 verdict. Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) terrorist Bhullar was convicted and awarded the death penalty for triggering a bomb blast in New Delhi in September 1993, which killed nine people and injured 25 others, including the then Youth Congress president M S Bitta.
While all his legal remedies were exhausted in March 2003 after the SC dismissed his curative petition against the conviction and sentence, his mercy plea filed before the President in January 2003 remained pending until May 2011. The President rejected his mercy plea. But citing this delay, he had again moved the apex court for commutation of the death sentence.
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