On 12/4/2013 Supreme Court delivered its verdict and rejected Devinderpal Singh Bhullar’s petition for commutation of death sentence to life sentence on the ground of delay in deciding mercy petition. The judgment has implication for cases of Rajiv Gandhi assassins, Veerappan gang members, and so on. Maninderjit Singh Bitta was happy at the verdict. He was target of terrorist attacks and had lost one leg.
Supreme Court should not entertain any petitions that questions rejection of mercy petition by President. There should be no second mercy petition. Delaying death penalty delays justice for victims. It reduces judicial and executive process to joke and farce. Death penalty is a just punishment. It is not barbaric. Markandey Katju is in favour of death penalty for honour killings (dishonour murders), bride burnings, and encounter killings. TV channels should stop inviting people who oppose death penalty for discussions.
It is too bad India had K. R. Narayanan, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, and Pratibha Patil as Presidents who did not do their duty properly in rejecting mercy petitions. Pranab Mukherjee has done a good job and I hope he will continue to reject mercy petitions. The correspondence regarding mercy petitions between Presidents and Home Ministers should be made public. People who have lost near and dear ones should take on LADP (lobbies against death penalty) and ask President to revoke commutations and pardons already granted and if that does not work they should challenge them in Supreme Court. People who oppose death penalty are pseudo-civilised, pseudo-humanist, pseudo-liberal, and pseudo-modern. Let not talk of EU fool us where country after country is going bankrupt and needs bail outs.
