New President will face four mercy petitions

New Delhi: The newly elected President of India will have at least four mercy petitions waiting at Rashtrapathi Bhavan for disposal, shortly after assuming office. Under Article 72 of the Constitution, the President is empowered to grant pardon or suspend, remit or commute sentences in certain cases. The four mercy pleas, including that of former […]

New Delhi: The newly elected President of India will have at least four mercy petitions waiting at Rashtrapathi Bhavan for disposal, shortly after assuming office. Under Article 72 of the Constitution, the President is empowered to grant pardon or suspend, remit or commute sentences in certain cases.

The four mercy pleas, including that of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh’s assassin Balwant Singh Rajoana, are pending with the Centre. Of the three remaining petitions, one is pending since 2015 and two from 2021. In 2020, President Ram Nath Kovind rejected the mercy plea of Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Kumar Singh and Pawan Gupta, four of the six convicted in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case.

---

The first mercy petition rejected by Kovind was of murder convict Jagat Rai, who along with his accomplices was convicted of killing five children and wife of Vijendra Mahato by setting the house on fire in 2006 in Rampur Shyamchandra village of Vaishali district in Bihar. In September 2013, the Supreme Court upheld Rai’s death sentence.

According to the President’s secretariat, the last mercy petition rejected by Kovind was of Sanjay in July 2020. He was sentenced to death in July 2006. Kovind’s predecessor, Pranab Mukherjee (2012-17), rejected 30 mercy petitions and pardoned four convicts from the 34 cases referred to him. Among the ones rejected were mercy petitions of 26/11 convict Ajmal Kasab, Parliament attack convict Mohammad Afzal Guru and 1993 blast convict Yakub Menon.

Mukherjee’s record of rejecting mercy pleas is second only to President R Venkatraman (1987-92), who declined 45 mercy pleas. Former president KR Narayanan (1997-2002) did not act on mercy petitions, while his successor President Abdul Kalam (2002-2007) disposed of two. India’s first woman President Pratibha Patil (2007-2012) commuted 34 mercy pleas and rejected five.