New Delhi: Seventy-seven mercy petitions have been decided by the President during the last 30 years out of which in 10 the sentence has been commuted to life imprisonment. The President's Secretariat gave this information in an RTI reply dated June 2.
According to the latest data, there are 29 condemned prisoners in the country who have filed mercy plea before the President. Among these, 24 mercy petitions are under consideration with President's Secretariat, three are with Home Ministry and two are awaiting views of state governments.
Among the pending mercy petitions at the President's Secretariat, the oldest is of Shyam Manohar, Sheo Ram, Prakash Suresh, Ravinder and Harish of Uttar Pradesh who killed five members of a family to avenge the death of brother of one of them.
Their mercy petition after being cleared by the state government in 1998, has been pending before the secretariat since January 1, 1999. It was resubmitted on July 2005 and February 2010.
"All the mercy petitions, under Article 72 of the constitution, are being examined in the Ministry of Home Affairs in consultation with the concerned State Governments/UTs. The broad guidelines generally considered while examining the mercy under Article 72 of the Constitution relate to personality of the accused such as age, sex or mental state of the accused, circumstances of the case, conduct of the offender, medical abnormality falling short of legal insanity and so on," the reply on the RTI plea by activist SC Agarwal said.
It said after examination, the case is submitted to the President's Secretariat for a final decision with the due recommendation of the Union Home Minister.
If the appeal is rejected under the Article 72, the decision of the President is communicated to the concerned state governments and union territories, who decide the date of execution in the matter under the existing rules, it said.
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