Supreme Court commutes Devinderpal Singh Bhullar’s death sentence to life imprisonment

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Mar 31, 2014: In a big relief to Devinderpal Singh Bhullar, the Supreme Court on Monday commuted death sentence of the 1993 Delhi blast convict to life imprisonment on the grounds of inordinate delay in deciding his mercy petition and on the grounds of mental illness.

The apex court bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam, Justice RM Lodha, Justice HL Dattu and Justice SJ Mukhopadyaya, while commuting the death sentence to life imprisonment, referred to the apex court’s January 21, 2014 verdict which said that inordinate, unexplained or unreasonable delay in deciding mercy petition was dehumanizing to death row convict and was a ground for commuting death sentence to life imprisonment.

The central government, on March 27, admitted that there was delay in deciding Bhullar’s mercy petition and the court could decide on his wife’s plea for commutation of death sentence into life imprisonment.

On January 31, the SC had stayed Bhullar’s execution and had agreed to review its judgement, rejecting his plea to commute his death sentence to life term.

Bhullar was convicted for his involvement in 1993 Delhi bomb blast case and his wife Navneet Kaur has sought commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment on grounds of delay in deciding his mercy petition and also on grounds he is suffering from mental illness.