SC commutes death sentence awarded to Rajiv Gandhi's killers to life

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday commuted the death sentence awarded to three persons in the Rajiv Gandhi murder case to life on the ground of inordinate delay in deciding their mercy pleas. The president or governor as the case may be decides their mercy pleas as per the advice of the council of ministers.
In this case, the president took 11 years to decide their mercy pleas. A top court, bench, led by outgoing Chief Justice of India P sathasivam, also took the opportunity to urge the government to decide mercy pleas within a "reasonable period".

The court also urged the government to take into account any delay in deciding their mercy pleas while taking a call whether to accept or reject their mercy pleas. The three are murugan, santhan and perarivalan. Murugan and santhan are Sri Lankan nationals and perarivalan is an Indian.

The court decision comes in the wake of a recent ruling which banned the execution of mentally ill persons, especially those who turned mentally ill due to long solitary incarceration while awaiting the gallows.

The court rejected the ag's submissions that the trio had enjoyed their lives in prison and hence could not be said to have undergone any mental torture while awaiting a final decision on their hanging.

"There is no requirement under Indian law for a death row convict to demonstrate actual harm," justice p sathasivam said. "...they were under undue I durable torture," he said, citing their pleadings in the court and their mercy pleas.

On February 4, the Central government had opposed a plea, by three Rajiv Gandhi killers to commute their death sentences to life, claiming that the trio had never expressed “a word of remorse” for their act in their mercy pleas to the Presidents and from their own accounts had been “enjoying” their life in jail, “educating” themselves and honing their “singing” and “painting” skills.

The AG also blamed a four-year delay in deciding their mercy pleas on the NDA regime, albeit indirectly, producing government files to claim that an official in the Home Ministry sat on the file for four years from 2000 to 2004. “The file sat in her drawer from 2002 to 2004,” he said.

Background

The AG also argued that the trio had not undergone any mental trauma while awaiting a decision on their mercy pleas, but had on their own admission spent the time well, educating themselves and being an active part of the social circle inside the jail.

One of them was in charge of a music troupe and another had held a painting exhibition which had greatly thrilled the state jails minister, he contended. “They were swinging or singing between life and death,” he wondered caustically.

His arguments were intended to convey to the court that the three -- Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan -- had not spent any time in solitary confinement or undergone any mental trauma or torture which entitled them to have their sentences commuted to life.

“This court is proceeding on the assumption that they were in agonizing death row solitary confinement. This is not correct,” Vahanvati said. “This is not a case where the person has been de-humanised, tortured.

In any case, he said, mere delay was not enough to have death sentence commuted to life. “There is no hint of any agony, torture,” the senior-most law officer of the country said.

There has also not been a “word of remorse” from the convicts in their mercy pleas to the President even after the Governor had rejected their mercy pleas, he charged.

“This is not a fit case of commutation. This is not a case of men who have been de-humanised and agonized,” he said.

Under a recent Jan 21, 2014, ruling all death row convicts would be entitled to have their sentences commuted if they could prove unexplained, undue, unreasonable delay in disposing of their mercy pleas on the ground that this agonizing wait would have inflicted additional trauma and torture on them which was violative of their fundamental rights.

They would also be entitled to have their sentences commuted if they turned mentally ill while awaiting execution in solitary confinement, the top court had said. The government had earlier indicated that it might seek review of this judgement, but hasn’t yet got around to doing it.

The AG, trying to prevent the killers in this case from claiming benefit of this law, also blamed a substantial part of the delay from 2000 to 2004 on the NDA regime without directly alluding to by name to the NDA. “This is a big gap. This shows how governance works in this country,” he said, producing files to back his claim.

“I am only doing this to defend the institution of President,” he added. He was, however, unable to explain the other five-year delay in the President’s office. The President’s office rejected their mercy pleas after 11 years. The convicts petitioned the top court for clemency in 2011.

Arguing for Santhan and Perarivalan, lawyer Yug Mohit Chaudhary, said that any inordinate delay in deciding clemency per se amounts to torture. “I don’t have to prove torture, the agonizing wait takes a frightful toll; suffering is assumed the world over.”

He also pointed out that the convicts were not hardened criminals and had admitted to killing former PM Rajiv Gandhi due to their personal grouse against alleged atrocities committed by the Indian Peace-Keeping Force in Sri Lanka.

Perarivalan has maintained from day one that he was innocent and that all evidence against him was fabricated, he pointed out. The bench then reserved its orders on the issue. While Murugan and Santhan are Sri Lankan nationals, Perarivalan is an Indian.

Murugan’s wife S. Nalini was also sentenced to death but it was later commuted by the state Governor to life at the intervention of Sonia Gandhi. She has a girl child and is now serving her sentence in a prison in Tamil Nadu.