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Akshay Kumar Singh v. Union of India & Ors.

Writ Petition (Criminal) · 2020 INSC 312Decided 19 Mar 2020
Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 121 of 2020
Justice R. Banumathi · Justice Ashok Bhushan · Justice A.S. Bopanna

Background

Akshay Kumar Singh, another convict in the 2012 Delhi gang-rape and murder ("Nirbhaya") case, challenged the President's rejection of his mercy petition. He argued the rejection ignored that he had been kept in solitary confinement and allegedly tortured in prison, and that media interviews by persons in authority may have influenced the President's decision. He also pointed to his wife's pending divorce petition as a circumstance that should have been considered.

Decision Breakdown

The Court reiterated that judicial review of the President's mercy power under Article 72 is extremely narrow: limited to grounds such as non-application of mind, mala fide exercise, reliance on irrelevant material, or arbitrariness (per Epuru Sudhakar v. Govt. of A.P.). It held none of the petitioner's grounds, alleged prison torture, press commentary, or his wife's divorce petition, met this threshold, since the President, as the highest constitutional authority, is presumed to have acted after considering all materials. The writ petition was dismissed.

Lesson Learnt

The President's decision on a mercy petition can only be judicially reviewed on a handful of narrow legal grounds (like bad faith or complete non-application of mind): sympathetic personal circumstances or media commentary, however compelling, are not by themselves grounds for a court to overturn it.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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