New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed death row convict and Khalistani terrorist Devinderpal Singh Bhullar’s plea for commutation of his death sentence, a ruling that can have an impact on 17 other convicts, including those held guilty in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination, facing execution.
Delivering the operative portion of the judgement in a packed room, a bench of justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhaya said that the petitioners for Bhullar failed to make out a case for commutation of sentence.
Friday’s decision will pave the way for his hanging and could have an impact on 17 other convicts on the death row, including those held guilty in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case and those belonging to sandalwood smuggler Veerappan’s group.
48-year-old Bhullar’s Canada-based wife, Navneet Kaur, who was present in the court, expressed disappointment over the verdict. The government can still intervene to save her husband’s life, she said in her reaction to the judgement.
She said Bhullar has been suffering from mental illness and has been under treatment for it.
The apex court had reserved its order on April 19 last year on the plea of Bhullar’s family which had filed a petition on his behalf pleading that his capital punishment be commuted to life imprisonment as there has been “inordinate” delay in deciding his mercy plea and he is not mentally sound.
It was submitted that prolonged incarceration of a death row convict awaiting his execution amounted to cruelty and violated the fundamental right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution. Bhullar was awarded death penalty for triggering a bomb blast here in September 1993, killing nine people and injuring 25 others, including then Youth Congress president M S Bitta. The apex court had on March 26, 2002, dismissed Bhullar’s appeal against the death sentence awarded by a trial court in August 2001 and endorsed by the Delhi High Court in 2002.
He had filed a review petition which was also dismissed on December 17, 2002. Bhullar had then moved a curative petition which too had been rejected by the apex court on March 12, 2003.
Bhullar, meanwhile, had filed a mercy petition before the President on January 14, 2003. The President, after a lapse of over eight years, dismissed his mercy plea on May 25, 2011. (PTI)