Prolonged delay in executing death rap has a dehumanising effect: HC

The Bombay high court on Tuesday commuted the death sentence of sisters Renuka Shinde (50) and Seema Gavit (48) to life term for kidnapping 13 children and brutally killing five of them.

- Swati.Deshpande

On Tuesday, the Bombay HC said, “Life imprisonment is till (end of) life of the convict, unless the competent authority remits the remainder.” It added that the brutality in murdering innocent children “is beyond words to condemn” and this gravity and “depravity” will be factored in by the state if the sisters seek remission.

“Though the procedure for deciding the mercy petitions mandates speed and expediency, the state machinery showed indifference and laxity at each stage of processing the files. That it took seven years only for the movement of files for such a grave issue is unacceptable when electronic communications were available to be used,” the HC said.