By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The Supreme Court has served a 48-hour notice to Meghalaya and 11 other states in the country to furnish details on pending clemency pleas of condemned prisoners. The Court has sought details pending with state Governors as it is going to hear those petitions in order to decide whether mercy pleas, if delayed, does result in commutation to life term.
Other states which were served the notice include Tripura, Nagaland, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Haryana, Odisha, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and West Bengal. These states had failed to submit the details on clemency pleas, after the apex court, in February, had sent directions to these states to prepare a graph with a timeline for clearing the mercy pleas.
The apex court has warned that in case the states fail to heed the directive the respective state home secretaries would have to personally appear before the apex court and explain the failure to do so.