MERCY PETITION - POLITY
News: Beant Singh Assassination case: Supreme
Court refuses to commute Rajoana death penalty
What's in the news?
● The
Supreme Court rejected the plea of Babbar Khalsa terrorist Balwant Singh
Rajoana, convicted for assassinating former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh,
for the commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment and left it to
the Centre to take a decision on the mercy plea of Rajoana at an appropriate
time.
Mercy Petition:
● A
mercy petition is a formal request made by someone who has been sentenced to death or imprisonment seeking mercy from
the President or the Governor, as the case may be.
Constitutional Provisions:
Article 72:
● As
per the Constitutional framework in India, mercy petition to the President is the last constitutional
resort a convict can take when he is sentenced by the court of law.
● The
President shall have the power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or
remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any
person convicted of any offense:
○ In
all cases where the punishment or sentence is by a Court Martial.
○ In
all cases where the punishment or sentence is for an offence against any law
relating to a matter to which the executive
power of the Union extends.
○ In
all cases where the sentence is a sentence
of death.
Article 161:
● The
power to grant pardon is conferred upon the Governors of States under Article 161 of the Constitution of India.
● It
provides that the Governor of a State shall have the power to grant pardons,
reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute
the sentence of any person convicted of any offence against any law relating to
a matter to which the executive power of
the State extends.
● The SC in 2021 held that the Governor of a
State can pardon prisoners, including death row ones, even before they have
served a minimum 14 years of prison sentence.
Procedure to file Mercy Petition:
● A
convict under the sentence of death is allowed to file a mercy petition within a period of seven days after the
date on which the Superintendent of Jail informs him about the dismissal of the
appeal or special leave to appeal by the Supreme Court.
● The
petitions are to be presented to the President of India. The President's office seeks cabinet advice.
● The
appeal is examined by the Ministry of
Home Affairs and the Ministry before giving recommendations to the
President, taking the view of the State concerned.
● There
is no written procedure to deal with
mercy petitions.
Judicial Review:
● President’s
pardon/rejection/delay is also subjected
to judicial review.
● However,
if a court finds that the process of the decision taken by the President under
Article 72 was not arbitrary or unreasonable; the decision then cannot be
interfered with.
Supreme court Judgements related to Mercy Petition:
Kehar Singh v. Union of India (1989):
● The
SC had examined the scope of the President’s pardoning power under Article 72
in detail.
● The
SC held that the exercise of the pardoning power vested in him under Article
72, could “scrutinize the evidence on the record of the criminal case and come
to a different conclusion from that recorded by the Court in regard to guilt of
and sentence imposed on the accused.
Dhananjoy Chatterjee alias Dhana v State of West
Bengal, 1994:
● In
this case the Supreme Court has said
that “The power under Articles 72 and 161 of the Constitution can be exercised
by the Central and State Governments, not by the President or Governor on their
own”.
● The
advice of the appropriate Government binds the Head of the state.