New Delhi: The Supreme Court yesterday stayed the execution of the death sentence of 1993 Delhi bomb blast convict Devender Pal Singh Bhullar and issued notice to the Centre on his petition seeking commuting of his death sentence to life imprisonment.
The plea for commuting the death sentence to life imprisonment is on the grounds of inordinate delay by the president in deciding his mercy plea and the state of his mental health.
The apex court bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam, Justice R M Lodha, Justice H L Dattu and Justice Sudhansu Jyoti Mukhopadhaya, while staying the execution of Bhullar’s death sentence, also issued notice to the Delhi government.
The court asked Delhi-based Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences to examine Bhullar and submit a report on his state of mental health within a week.
At the outset of the hearing, the judges inquired if they could hear the grounds raised by Bhullar for revisiting the verdict on his death sentence in a curative petition.
The court said curative petition could only be made if there was a miscarriage of justice or direct or indirect bias in the verdict sought to be re-looked. The court said that in this situation, a member of Bhullar’s family should file an independent petition.
Bhullar was represented in the case by senior counsel K T S Tulsi. Bhullar’s curative petition came for hearing Friday as Chief Justice Sathasivam, Justice Lodha, Justice Dattu and Justice Mukhopadhaya, after considering it in the chamber Jan 28, decided to hear it in the open court Jan 31.
Chief Justice Sathasivam had Jan 24 directed the hearing of Bhullar’s plea Jan 28 after senior counsel Tulsi had told the court that the curative petition was pending since September 2013.
Student beaten
to death in Delhi
New Delhi: A 20-year-old student from Arunachal Pradesh was allegedly severely assaulted by shopkeepers in Delhi and died on Thursday, police said.
Nido Taniam died of his injuries while being treated at a hospital. He was beaten up on Wednesday.
Police said they are questioning the shopkeepers in the capital’s Lajpat Nagar-I area, where the incident took place. Speaking to the media, Taniam’s cousin said he saw an injury mark on his neck and his lips were torn.
“Taniam’s body has been taken to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). The family has been informed. As they won’t be able to come here, we will take the body back home,” Taniam’s cousin said.
Uttarakhand CM
Bahuguna quits
Dehradun: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna resigned yesterday. Central minister Harish Rawat is widely tipped to take charge of the hill state. While the writing was on the wall for Bahuguna for over a week, the chief minister was told to put in his papers on Thursday night, a highly placed source said.
The source said the decision had the consent of both party president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi.
The 66-year-old chief minister told the media that he was resigning as the party “high command” had asked him to do so.
Bahuguna, party insiders said, had paid the price for the poor rehabilitation the state saw after the June 2013 flash floods and heavy rains in which thousands perished. A Congress legislature party meeting has been called today in which a new leader will be elected. Bahuguna handed over his resignation to the governor and has been asked to continue until alternate arrangements are made.Agencies
