The Supreme Court on Tuesday commuted death sentence
of three assassins of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi to life imprisonment
citing the 11-year delay on the part of the Centre in deciding their mercy
plea, reports said.
A combo picture of Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan,
convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination. (Agencies photo)
The apex court rejected Centre's contention that
delay in deciding mercy plea of convicts V Sriharan alias Murugan, AG
Perarivlan alias Arivu and T Suthendraraja alias Santhan did not result in
agony.
"We implore the government to render advice in
reasonable time to the President for taking a decision on mercy pleas,"
the SC said in its verdict.
"We are confident that the mercy plea can be
decided much faster than what is being done now."
The three assassins had sought the commutation of
their death sentence to life imprisonment on account of the inordinate delay of
nearly 11 years in deciding their mercy petitions.
The central government had opposed the plea saying
that apex court's Jan 21 verdict, holding inordinate, unreasonable and
unexplained delay in deciding the mercy petitions by president was a ground for
seeking commutation of death sentence into life imprisonment was not applicable
in their case.
Attorney General GE Vahanvati had told the court
that all through these 11 years, the three assassins were living a full life by
holding music shows, art exhibitions and other recreational activities in the
jail.
The government had said that during 11 years of
their incarceration when their mercy petition was pending with the president,
the three assassins suffered no agony, torture or dehumanizing situation.
Senior counsel Yug Chaudhary who had appeared for
the three assassins had argued that delay, per se, was torture.
Rajiv Gandhi was killed in 1991. His assassins were
convicted by a TADA court in January 1998 and were awarded death sentence,
which was confirmed by the apex court May 11, 1999.
In August 2012, their mercy petitions were rejected
but as the date of their execution was fixed, the Madras high court intervened
and the execution of the death sentenced was stayed.
Subsequently on a plea by MDMK leader Vaiko, the
matter before the Madras high court was transferred to the Supreme Court.
