President commutes death sentence of 8 to life

New Delhi: President Pratibha Patil has commuted to life imprisonment the death sentence given to eight persons in two separate murder cases.

Patil gave her order on June 15 on mercy petitions filed by Shyam Manohar and five others, and Dharmendra Kumar and Narendra Yadav.

Shyam Manohar along with Sheo Ram, Prakash, Suresh, Ravinder and Harish, all residents of Uttar Pradesh, were on death row since October 1997 for killing five persons, including a 10-year old boy, to avenge the murder of a brother of one of the convicts.

The Supreme Court had in 1997 upheld the death penalty awarded to them by the Lucknow High Court. They had filed a mercy petition before the President soon after the verdict.

The file was re-submitted to President's Secretariat on February 23rd, 2010.

Dharmendra Kumar and Narendra Yadav of Uttar Pradesh had been also been convicted of killing five members of a family.

In this case, the trial court had awarded death sentence to the duo in 1995 but it was not upheld by the High Court. However, in 1999, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence given by the trial court.

The mercy petition was filed by the duo in 1999 and was re-submitted to President's Secretariat on March 2010. The information was provided by the President's Secretariat to S C Agrawal in a Right to Information reply.

After the decision on these two mercy petitions, 21 such pleas are still pending with the President's Secretariat while three are with Home Ministry, the reply said.

Before granting mercy in these two cases, 77 petitions have been decided by the Presidents during the last three decades out of which in only 10 cases the sentence has been commuted to life imprisonment.

The broad guidelines generally considered while examining grant of mercy under Article 72 of the Constitution relate to age, sex or mental state of the accused, circumstances of the case, conduct of the offender and medical abnormality falling short of legal insanity.

After examination, the case is submitted to the President's Secretariat for a final decision with the recommendation of the Union Home Minister.

There is no time limit given under the Article for the President to take decision on a mercy plea. If the appeal is rejected under the Article 72, the decision of the President is communicated to the concerned state governments and Union Territories, which decide the date of execution in the matter under the existing rules.