Bhullar can amend his plea, says Supreme Court

New Delhi, September 5
The Supreme Court today permitted Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, sentenced to death for the 1993 bomb attack on the then Youth Congress chief MS Bitta, to amend his petition, raising additional grounds to strengthen his plea for commuting the death penalty to life term.
A Bench comprising Justices GS Singhvi and HL Dattu asked Bhullar’s senior counsel KTS Tulsi to file the amended petition within a week. The Bench also directed Additional Solicitor- General HP Rawal to come out with the government’s response in two weeks thereafter. In the original petition, Bhullar had sought commutation primarily on the ground of eight years’ delay in the rejection of his mercy plea. As a result, he was kept in solitary confinement all these years at Tihar. This was worse than serving the life term, which did not entail solitary confinement, he had contended in the petition.
The death sentence should be commuted to life as he could not be forced to undergo two punishments - death and incarceration for years - for the bomb attack.
The apex court had issued a notice to the Delhi Government on May 23 this year, seeking its response to Bhullar’s contention.
Bhullar’s counsel today said he would add two more reasons for sparing the life of his client. One, the Law Commission had recommended that cases involving death sentences should be decided only by Constitution Benches of the Supreme Court. Second, the sentence should be commuted if the apex court verdict upholding the death sentence was not unanimous. Bhullar’s death penalty was confirmed by a 2-1 majority verdict of the apex court.
In the original plea, Tulsi had cited Bhullar’s mental status as a reason against sending him to the gallows. The agony of waiting to be hanged had made him a mental wreck and he was being treated at the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Science at Shahdara. There was no legal provision for hanging convicts with such a mental condition, he had pleaded.

• Senior counsel Tulsi asked to file amended petition within a week;
• Tulsi says he would add two more reasons for sparing the life of his client Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar;
• One, the Law Commission had recommended that cases involving death sentences be decided only by Constitution Benches;
• Second, it had said the sentence should be commuted if the apex court verdict upholding the death sentence is not unanimous;
• Bhullar’s death penalty was confirmed by a 2-1 majority verdict of the apex court;