In this case, the president took 11 years to decide their mercy pleas. A top court, bench, led by outgoing Chief Justice of India P sathasivam, also took the opportunity to urge the government to decide mercy pleas within a "reasonable period".
The court also urged the government to take into account any delay in deciding their mercy pleas while taking a call whether to accept or reject their mercy pleas. The three are murugan, santhan and perarivalan. Murugan and santhan are Sri Lankan nationals and perarivalan is an Indian.
The court decision comes in the wake of a recent ruling which banned the execution of mentally ill persons, especially those who turned mentally ill due to long solitary incarceration while awaiting the gallows.
The court rejected the ag's submissions that the trio had enjoyed their lives in prison and hence could not be said to have undergone any mental torture while awaiting a final decision on their hanging.
"There is no requirement under Indian law for a death row convict to demonstrate actual harm," justice p sathasivam said. "...they were under undue I durable torture," he said, citing their pleadings in the court and their mercy pleas.
On February 4, the Central government had opposed a plea, by three Rajiv Gandhi killers to commute their death sentences to life, claiming that the trio had never expressed "a word of remorse" for their act in their mercy pleas to the Presidents and from their own accounts had been "enjoying" their life in jail, "educating" themselves and honing their "singing" and "painting" skills.
The AG also blamed a four-year delay in deciding their mercy pleas on the NDA regime, albeit indirectly, producing government files to claim that an official in the Home Ministry sat on the file for four years from 2000 to 2004. "The file sat in her drawer from 2002 to 2004," he said.
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