Centre sits on mercy petitions, convicts benefit

The Supreme Court's directive to the Government to settle mercy pleas of death row convicts in a time-bound manner has not come a day too soon, as inordinate delays in executing a death sentence have become the ground for commuting it to a life term. While setting aside the death sentence of 15 convicts, the apex court ruled on Tuesday that if the Government had taken an excessive and unwarranted amount of time to decide on the mercy petition of a death row convict, the latter's resultant prolonged imprisonment was a violation of his fundamental right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution.

Read Full Story>>