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Union of India v. Dharam Pal

Criminal Appeal · 2019 INSC 563Decided 24 Apr 2019
Criminal Appeal No. 804 of 2019
Justice N.V. Ramana · Justice Mohan M. Shantanagoudar · Justice S. Abdul Nazeer

Background

The respondent was convicted and sentenced to death for murdering five family members of a woman in a rape case in which he himself had been convicted (and was later acquitted on appeal). His mercy petitions to the Governor and President took over 13 years to decide, and during this period he was kept in solitary confinement for 18 years. The High Court commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment on grounds of this illegal solitary confinement and the inordinate, unexplained delay in deciding his mercy petition, and also because his acquittal in the rape case (a key factor in his death sentence) was never placed before the President. The Union of India appealed against this commutation.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court upheld the High Court's decision, holding that keeping a prisoner in solitary confinement before his mercy petition is decided is "per se illegal," relying on the Constitution Bench ruling in Sunil Batra v. Delhi Administration and the later ruling in Shatrughan Chauhan v. Union of India. It also held that a prolonged, unexplained delay in deciding a mercy petition violates Article 21 (right to life) and independently justifies commutation. Combining these findings with the government's failure to inform the President of the respondent's acquittal in the related rape case, the Court found no reason to interfere with the commutation, but directed that the respondent be released only after completing 35 years of actual imprisonment (including time already served), given that he had committed the murders while out on bail.

Lesson Learnt

Even a person convicted and sentenced to death retains constitutional rights: unexplained, lengthy delays in deciding mercy petitions and unlawful solitary confinement before a death sentence becomes final can themselves be grounds for commuting a death sentence to life imprisonment.

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

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