This article was last updated on April 16, 2022
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The Supreme Court has given hope to several death row convicts in India after commuting the death sentence of double murder convict Mahendra Nath Das to life term on Wednesday. President Pranab Mukherjee had earlier rejected mercy pleas of these non-terrorist criminals. A bench headed by Justice GS Singhvi heard the case of Das who had pleaded on the ground that the President had taken eleven years to decide his mercy plea.
“The judgment is a step in the right direction for eventual abolition of death penalty in the country. It recognizes that life imprisonment remains an equally efficacious form of justice and death penalty is not the only form of justice,” Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) director Suhas Chakma said.
The apex court successfully drew an evident distinction between terrorism and crimes of other nature in April. The matter was decided upon during the mercy of plea by Devender Pal Singh Bhullar. The SC is determined to revisit the appeals on a case-to-case basis to provide justice to all the convicts.
Mercy pleas of 15 death row convicts including Santhan, Murugan and Arivu, the assassins of former PM Rajiv Gandhi, are pending in different courts after been rejected by the President. These assassins are alleged to be involved in terrorism and hence the apex court might not decide the same fate for them.
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