Supreme Court dismissed Plea to Dismiss Bhullar’s Death Commutation

The Supreme Court of India on 12 April 2013 dismissed the plea of Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar the terrorist of Khalistan Liberation Force to dismiss the death penalty and shift it to life imprisonment. Bhullar faced the sentence of Death from the Supreme Court for triggering a bomb blast in Delhi in 1993, in which 9 people were killed leaving behind 17 injured.

The Supreme Court was hearing the petition submitted by the Bhullar in which he demanded commutation of the death penalty due to long delay in the decision of the President on his mercy petition. His mercy petition was in row in the President’s office for eight years, before the President rejected it in the year 2011.

The Supreme Court Bench of two Judges that comprised Justice G.S. Singhvi and S.J. Mukhopadhya in its rule declared that the long delay by the President or Governor in disposing the mercy petition of person convicted under anti-terror laws or similar statutes cannot be a ground for commutation of death sentence. The Supreme Court’s decision has cleared the way for execution of Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar.