In his petition, Saibanna Ningappa Natikar, facing the gallows for murdering his wife and daughter in 1994, submitted that he had to suffer on death row due to delay in deciding on his mercy plea moved on April 29, 2005.
When the matter came up, a division bench comprising justices Sridhar Rao and Abdul Nazir adjourned the hearing to January 30.
President Pranab Mukherjee rejected Natikar's mercy petition on January 4.
Natikar, currently lodged in Belgaum central prison, was sentenced to death in April 2005 for murdering his second wife and daughter in 1994. At the time of the crime, he was on parole while serving a life sentence for killing his first wife in 1992.
The Supreme Court on February 14, 2007 upheld the high court order confirming the capital punishment awarded to him by the Gulbarga district court.
