New Delhi, India— The union government of India has assured the Supreme Court that Prof. Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar who is facing death row will not be executed due to his critical mental condition. The assurance has been made in the wake of a mercy plea filed by his wife which is still pending before the President of India.
The government has also told the court that the Home Ministry is looking at Delhi Lieutenant Governor Nazeeb Jung’s recommendation that his plea be accepted. The apex Court has adjourned the hearing for two weeks. The Indian government informed the Court that it would communicate to President Pranab Mukherjee its decision in two weeks on the fresh mercy petition by Navneet Kaur, Bhullar’s wife.
Navneet Kaur filed the petition for review against the apex court judgment which rejected her plea to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment on the grounds of delay on the part of the government in deciding his mercy plea.
On March 26, 2002, the court had dismissed Bhullar’s appeal against the death sentence awarded by a trial court in August 2001 and endorsed by the Delhi High Court in 2002. He had lodged a review petition which was also dismissed on December 17, 2002. Bhullar had then moved a curative plea that too had been rejected by the apex court on March 12, 2003.
Bhullar, meanwhile, had filed a mercy petition before the President on January 14, 2003. The President, after a gap of over eight years, dismissed his mercy plea on May 14, 2011. Citing the delay, he had again moved the apex court for commutation of the death sentence but his plea was rejected until other death row inmates were successful in their pleas.
