Published: Tuesday, May 4, 2010, 1:38 IST
By Harish Gupta | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA
http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_so-what-if-kasab-is-given-the-death-penalty_1378722
President Pratibha Patil is unlikely to fast-track the Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab hanging, should he get capital punishment by the trial court, and which is then upheld by superior courts.
According to sources, the president has 29 mercy petitions pending for disposal and she is unlikely to deviate from the procedures and norms set to deal with such cases.
When the issue of parliament attack accused Afzal Guru’s hanging was raised by the BJP, the government had asserted that it could not be ‘fast-tracked’. Union home minister P Chidambaram said on May 25, 2009, that Afzal Guru’s mercy petition was at number 22 among the pending pleas with the government.
“A decision in respect of Afzal Guru will be taken only after the fate of 21 mercy petitions is decided,” he had said, rejecting the Opposition’s demand for his immediate hanging.
As per information available with DNA, president Pratibha Patil has not taken a decision on any of the mercy petitions pending with her secretariat during her two-and-a-half-year tenure.
The president was somewhat upset that her office was unnecessarily being dragged into the controversy. It was pointed out that her predecessor, APJ Abdul Kalam, had cleared only two such files in five years and the late KR Narayanan did not clear a single mercy petition during his tenure.
Therefore, it would be wrong to expect her secretariat to clear the entire backlog. It is also explained that deciding a mercy petition is a painful and cumbersome process. A mercy petition is not a legal decision and a number of other factors are also taken into consideration when the matter is finally decided.
According to the National Crime Bureau records, there are over 1,150 persons including 330 women who were awarded death sentences by trial courts in the country. Their mercy petitions are under consideration at various stages in respective states. Of them, only 29 mercy petitions have finally come to the president for clemency.
As per the procedure prescribed for dealing with mercy petitions, a petition can be filed by a condemned prisoner or on his behalf to the president or governor.
Sources in the government said that it might take the extraordinary step of fast-tracking the hanging of Kasab once the highest court gives its verdict, to set an example.But, no one is sure when Kasab’s mercy petition will reach Rashtrapati Bhavan.
