Shatrughan Chauhan and Ors. v. Union of India: Judgment by Justice P. Sathasivam

2014 was a year when the executions of Ajmal Kasab and Afsal Guru had brought back the issue of death penalty into limelight, showing the people that the people who do wrong to us will be hanged to death by the Indian judiciary.
But the one thing this failed to bring into the attention of the people was the sheer imbalance, delay and discrimination that has been a part of this decision of death penalty from the side of the executive machinery which carries the final power of granting a mercy from the sentence, or rejecting it.
This came to be the year when the sentence of as many as fifteen death row convicts was commuted by the Supreme Court of India by the judgment of Former Chief Justice of India, Justice P. Sathasivam in the case of Shatrughan Chauhan & Anr v. Union of India & Ors.
The main prayer made by all the petitioners in this case was that the inordinate delay by the President or the Governor in granting, or rejecting, the mercy petition of the convicts should be ground for the commutation of the death sentence of such convicts. It was further contended before the bench that the rejection of mercy petition by the president should be declared unconstitutional.
After hearing the arguments and prayers of the petitoners, the Supreme Court, through a bench headed by CJI P. Satasivam, gave a judgment that came as a relief to many death row convicts. They observed that the delay by the government in taking a decision about the mercy petition of the death row convicts was in fact a valid ground for commutation of their sentence.
This judgment came as a relief to as many as fifteen death row convicts, whose sentence was thus commuted to life term. This judgment also included the factor that schizophrenia and mental illness is also a defence against death penalty and such a person cannot be hanged.
In this case, the Supreme Court overruled its own verdict in Devinderpal Singh Bhullar’s case in which it had held that delay in deciding mercy plea cannot be a ground for commutation of death sentence.
 
Author: Akshay Goel, Hidayatullah National Law University