Plea filed in SC seeking guidelines for time-bound disposal of clemency, mercy petitions
Jul 01, 2020
New Delhi [India], July 1 : A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking directions for issuance of guidelines for disposal of clemency and mercy petitions for cases in which death penalty has been awarded, in a time-bound manner.
The plea also sought direction for the centre and state governments to take necessary steps, in a time-bound manner, in accordance with the law to execute the sentence of death for those death-row convicts who have exhausted all their legal remedies.
The petitioner stressed on the irregularities in deciding petitions across High Courts.
He said in the petition that he was particularly focussing on the case of the two child-murderer sisters Renuka and Seema - convicted of kidnapping and murdering in a depraving manner 5 helpless children.
The petition stated that their death sentences though confirmed by the top court, the President and the Governor - is stayed since 2014, as the Bombay High Court is hearing their post-mercy rejection petition in the most lackadaisical manner, with a gap of more than 5 years 7 months between two hearing dates at the pre-admission stage.
It contended that while convicts in the Delhi gang rape and murder case were dealt with expeditiously because the victim's parents garnered support and resources to reach out to the judicial system, victims in the child murderers case were slum dwellers and lacked resources and support due to death sentences of the convicts, though confirmed, is pending since 2014.
The petition stated that the recent hanging of convicts in Delhi gang rape and murder brought glaring systemic deficiencies.
It added that "there is selectiveness in going forward with executions and loopholes are solidly misused like they were in the Delhi case at the eleventh hour. This, it is argued, leads to social discontent."
"Just because the parents of the 42 deceased children are poor slum dwellers and do not have the means to pursue the case of their brutally murdered children; this is how the Bombay High Court is handling the case," the petition asserted.
The sister duo Renuka and Seema were convicted of killing five children and the kidnapping of 13 others between 1990 and 1996. The kidnapped children have never been found.
