The Delhi High Court today said it can hear and grant stay on the execution of a man held guilty for murder of five persons, including two children, in 2004 in Chhattisgarh, as the decision rejecting his mercy plea was taken here by the President of India.
A bench of Justices G S Sistani and Vinod Goel said this while dismissing the plea of the Chhattisgarh government that the Delhi High Court did not have jurisdiction to hear the matter.
The state government had contended that rejection of mercy plea by the President and the Governor of Chhattisgarh does not give rise to any cause of action.
The high court, however, refused to accept the contention, saying mercy petition was the "last thread" between convict and the gallows and its rejection, which leads to issuance of warrants of execution, "closes the last hope upon which his very life is reliant".
"Therefore, in our view, the rejection of mercy petition does give rise to a cause of action at Delhi," it said.
The bench also said, "The material to be examined is the advice tendered by the cabinet and all the documents and records pertaining to the same are in Delhi and the decision has also been taken in Delhi.
"Further the location of the convict also makes no difference, as the convict being the dominus litis (the main litigant) is free to invoke the jurisdiction of this court."
The court also rejected the state government's argument that cause of action was linked with crime, saying that "concept of cause of action in respect of criminal proceedings cannot apply sensu stricto (strict sense) to the present proceedings as the same are not a continuation of the judicial proceedings but premised upon executive orders".
It said that the act of the President of India under the constitutional power is entirely different from the judicial power and cannot be regarded as an extension of it.
"Accordingly, it cannot be said that the power exercised by the President of India (rejecting the mercy plea) is in continuation of the judicial proceedings," it said.
The state government's application was filed in the main
petition of the convict, Sonu Sardar, who has sought that his death penalty be commuted to life imprisonment on account of delay in deciding his mercy plea as well as for allegedly keeping him in "solitary confinement illegally".
The Delhi High Court had on March 2, 2015 stayed the execution of Sardar after which the state government had approached the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi High Court's jurisdiction to hear the matter. The apex court had asked the high court to decide the state's application in four weeks.
Sardar, along with his brother and accomplices, had killed five persons of a family, including a woman and two children, during a dacoity bid in Chhattisgarh's Cher village on November 26, 2004. The trial court had slapped death penalty on him and the Chhattisgarh High Court had upheld it.
The Supreme Court in February 2012 had concurred with the findings of two courts below and affirmed the punishment. His mercy petition was also dismissed by both the state Governor and the President of India. In February 2015, the apex court had also rejected his review plea.
