V. SRIHARAN @ MURUGAN Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The above transferred cases which were borne out of the writ petitions filed by V. Sriharan @ Murugan, T. Suthendraraja @ Santhan and A.G. Perarivalan @ Arivu in the Madras High Court and which got transferred to this Court under Article 139A of the Constitution of India raise vital issues pertaining to violation of fundamental rights of death row convicts ensuing from inordinate delay caused at the hands of executive in deciding the mercy petitions filed under Article 72/161 of the Constitution. In all the writ petitions, the petitioners prayed for a writ of declaration declaring that the execution of the sentence of death, pursuant to the letter No. F.No.14/1/1999-Judicial Cell dated 12.08.2011 issued by the Union of India, is unconstitutional and thus sought for commutation of the sentence of death to imprisonment for life.

(2.) Akin to this issue was decided by us in a recent judgment viz., Shatrughan Chauhan & Anr. vs. Union of India & Ors. [Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 55 of 2013 etc.] decided on 21.01.2014 wherein this Court held that execution of sentence of death on the accused notwithstanding the existence of supervening circumstances, is in violation of Article 21 of the Constitution. One of the supervening circumstances sanctioned by this Court for commutation of death sentence into life imprisonment is the undue, inordinate and unreasonable delay in execution of death sentence as it attributes to torture. However, this Court, cogently clarified in its verdict that the nature of delay i.e. whether it is undue or unreasonable must be appreciated based on facts of individual cases and no exhaustive guidelines can be framed in this regard. The relevant portion of Shatrughan Chauhan , is as under:-

(3.) Accordingly, the case at hand has to be decided under the guidance of this judgment. The two principles stipulated in the judgment for commutation of death sentence into life imprisonment on the ground of delay as the supervening circumstance are firstly, that the delay occurred must be inordinate and secondly, that the delay must not be caused at the instance of the accused. Let us assess the facts of the given case in the light of established principles in Shatrughan Chauhan .