How The State Should Consider Mercy Petitions

The president’s commutation of death sentence given to Balwant Singh Rajoana, convicted for Punjab CM Beant Singh’s assassination, stirs the debate on how the State should consider such petitions

- Venkatasubramanian

How does the president of India decide the mercy petitions submitted to him by death row convicts? Article 72 of the Constitution which enables the President to consider such petitions, merely states that he shall have the power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any person convicted of any offence in all cases where the sentence is one of death. The president’s power under Article 72 is unique in that it is uninfluenced by the finding of guilt of an accused by a court of law.

What factors influence a president to commute the death sentence of a convict, after the Supreme Court confirms it, exhausting all the legal remedies available to review and reverse it? Article 72 enables a president to exercise his moral authority over the judicial confirmation of guilt of an accused at the appellate stage. It also gives the president the powers to make a fresh appraisal of the materials which enabled various judicial forums to find the accused guilty, and deserving of the death penalty, considering the heinous nature of the offence committed. This power, unlike judicial power, in the words of an expert, is of the “wildest amplitude and uncircumscribed,” except that its exercise must be bona fide.

Although the president is bound by the advice of the council of ministers to reject or accept a mercy petition, he is also expected to ask the Government to reconsider such advice, in the light of his own opinion on whether in that case execution of the death sentence would be warranted. In some cases, concerns about the culpability of the mercy petitioner in the offence he was found to have committed could trigger a rethink.