IANS

NEW DELHI

THE Supreme Court on Thursday asked the government to set a time frame for deciding death row convicts’ mercy petitions pending before it.

You give us the time frame for deciding the mercy petitions which are pending before you,” the apex court bench of Justice GS Singhvi and Justice SJ Mukhopadhaya told the government adding that this was part of law and order.

The court said that the common man’s perception on law and order was formed on the basis of the decision on such matters, adding that the impact of sentence was lost if the decision was taken after a long delay. As a caution, the court said that the government should not decide the pending mercy petitions in a hurry”.

The court was hearing petitions by two death row convicts - Devender Pal Singh Bhullar and Mahindra Nath Das.

Bhullar challenged the rejection of his mercy petition by the president and sought commutation of his death sentence to life. Das sought commutation of his death penalty on the grounds of inordinate delay in deciding his mercy petition by the president. The court while hearing these petitions expanded the scope of the hearing by calling for the details of all the mercy petitions that were pending before the president and governors in different states.

Making it clear that it was just deciding the question of delay in two cases before it, the court said that it may decide one way or the other but it would impact the other cases also.