New
Delhi, - The death sentence can not be carried out in respect of a person who
is mentally ill, the Supreme Court was Wednesday told by Prof Devender Pal
Singh Bhullar who was given capital punishment for a 1993 blast here which
killed nine people. He has sought commutation of his execution to life term on
this ground.
An apex court bench of Justice G.S.
Singhvi and Justice S.J. Mukhopadhaya was told this by senior counsel K.T.S.
Tulsi appearing for Prof Bhullar who has sought commutation of his death
sentence to life imprisonment claiming delay of eight years in deciding his
mercy petition by the president had left him mentally ill.
Prof Bhullar claimed that he was
suffering from a mental disorder for which he had even undergone treatment at
a hospital. He blamed his incarceration in jail for his mental state.
The blast convict was awarded death
sentence for his involvement in the bomb blast at the Youth Congress office
here.
Prof Bhullar filed the mercy
petition Jan 14, 2003 which was rejected by the president May 25.
Tulsi referred to the judgments of
American courts to buttress his point that a mentally sick person could not be
sent to the gallows.
As Tulsi pointed to an apex court
verdict saying that a petitioner could move the court seeking commutation of
the death sentence in the event of inordinate delay, the judges drew his
attention to a part of judgment which said that no limit could be imposed on
the president in taking a decision on a mercy petition.
Tulsi said that this relaxation did
not mean that the "government will go into slumber and not decide the mercy
petitions decades after decades".
The senior counsel told the court
that even a condemned prisoner had a right to "just, fair, and speedy"
justice.
"Laxity of this court is growing.
With every decade the centre and the states are getting longer ropes and they
think that they can get away with inordinate delays," Tulsi told the court.
He quoted former chief justice P.N.
Bhagwati to say that "constitution is not an outlaw in the walls of the
prison".
The court said that "delay gives a
big hope" to the convict on the death row.
"The inordinate delay of eight
years in deciding the mercy petition was both dehumanizing and tortuous",
Tulsi told the court.
The court said that long delay
gives a hope that a political combination may be formed and you were able to
gather the support of a section of the people to push for getting some relief.
Tulsi said that the matter was
pending since 2003 and all sorts of political shades had come to power at the
centre but none took a different call.
He said that just two days after
the apex court issued notice on Bhullar's petition seeking commutation of the
death sentence, that his mercy petition was rejected.
The court allowed senior counsel
Ram Jethmalani's plea for intervention on behalf of four convicts involved in
the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.
The four moved the Madras High
Court seeking commutation of death sentence on grounds of delay. Jethmalani
told the court that the verdict of the apex court would have a bearing on the
case of the four as well.
Tulsi would continue his arguments
next week.
Virtually ticking off those championing the
human rights cause of law-breakers, the Supreme Court today wondered why
nobody talked about those who die of starvation, farmers' suicide and security
men getting killed in terrorist violence.
A bench of justices G S Singhvi and S J
Mukhopadhya felt human rights violation cannot be the prerogative of a few
privileged as it was as much available to other marginalised sections of the
society and victims of violence.
"What about the psyche of the victims of
violence? So many security people gave up their lives in defending Parliament.
Those brave people have been forgotten in a day.
In this case too, nine people were killed and 29 injured. Has any one found
out about their feelings? What about their human rights"? the bench said.
The apex court made the remarks while dealing
with the appeal filed by Punjab terrorist Devender Pal Singh Bhullar who was
awarded death penalty for triggering a bomb blast here in September 1993
killing nine people, challenging the government's eight-year delay in dealing
with his mercy petition.
