Supreme Court Dismisses Union's Plea To Modify 'Shatrughan Chauhan' Judgment On Death Row Convicts' Mercy Petitions

The Supreme Court today(October 8) dismissed a modification application filed by the Union seeking further guidelines in the 2014 Shatrughan Chauhan judgment to make it more victim-centric.

It may be recalled that the Union's modification application dates back to 2020 filed in the context of the pending execution of death warrants of the four convicts in the 2012 Delhi gangrape-murder case. The death warrants were only executed in 2020 after the Supreme Court rejected their final plea in a special sitting at midnight.

In 2014, a three-judge bench laid down various guidelines for the protection of the rights of death row convicts and declared that long pendency in the disposal of a mercy petition is a ground to commute the death penalty to a life sentence. It also said that a 14-day period should be there between the intimation of the rejection of the mercy petition and the final execution, so that the death row convict can not just seek a remedy but also mentally prepare himself for the execution.

A bench comprising Justice Vikram Nath, Justice Sandeep Mehta, and Justice NV Anjaria remarked that there was no merit in the application.

On the last occasion, ASG KM Nataraj had argued that the modification of the guidelines is required so that the process of continuously filing mercy petitions, review, and curative petitions, including on grounds of inordinate delays, stops at some point in time.

Earlier, the Court had said it would wait for the pronouncement of the 2024 State of Maharashtra and Ors. v. Pradeep Yashwant Kokade judgment. In that judgment, a three-judge bench directed all States and UTs to constitute a dedicated cell for the prompt processing of the mercy petitions by death row convicts within the timeline laid down by the respective governments.

As per the modification application of the Union, it has urged the Court to fix a timeline for filing a curative petition and a mercy petition. The application stated that putting off the execution due to the pendency of proceedings of a co-convict can have a de-humanising effect on the convict, whose all legal remedies have been exhausted.

The Centre has said that these guidelines "do not take into account an irreparable mental trauma, agony, upheaval and derangement of the victims and their family members, the collective conscience of the nation and the deterrent effect which the capital punishment intends to make".

It is stated in the application that in situations where multiple convicts are facing the death penalty in the same case, execution can be prolonged if they choose to avail different legal remedies independently at different times. This can frustrate the simultaneous execution of all convicts, due to pendency of some proceeding at the instance of any of the convicts.

The application also seeks to reduce the notice period of 14 days for execution after the rejection of the mercy petition to 7 days.