I am not a lawyer, but some plain common sense tells me that :
a) It is permissible within law to file a mercy petition before the
President even after
confirmation by the apex court .
b) Mercy petition can be filed at any time PRIOR to hanging .
c) Hanging has to be kept in abeyance once the mercy petition has been
filed .
d) Mercy petition can be filed by any one of convict's blood relations
on his behalf
e) As for Home Minister PC's apparently false statement , this should be
brought to the
attention of the President's Office .
--- In [email protected], Col NR Kurup <colnrku...@...> wrote:
>
> At least some of us might have swallowed our Hon'ble Minister
> Sri.Chidambaram's reply that Convict Afsal Guru's mercy petition is
pending
> as 22nd in the Rashtrapathi Bhavan waiting for its turn. Some how I
smelt
> rat and asked its status from President's Secretariate (Rashtrapati
> Bhavan).as well as from Home Ministry under right to information..
Believe
> it or not. Following are part of the propt reply:
>
> 1. Convict Mohd Afsal Guru's punishment was confirmed by Supreme Court
on
> 04-08-2005 has not filed any mercy petiton. However his wife has filed
a
> mercy peition on behalf of Mohd Afzal Guru on 03-10-2006 (14 months
after
> confirmation of the punishement). The Rashtrapati Bhavan has forwarded
it
> in original to the Ministry of Home affairs vide UO
No.15(7)/2006-CA-II
> dated 03-12-2006 (on the same date) for their advice
>
> 2. It is not pending at Rashtrapathi Bhavan waiting for its turn as
stated
> by the Hon'ble Minister.
>
> 3. Despite lapse of 2 years and 8 months the Rashtrapti Bhavan has not
> received the advice of Ministry of Home affairs. It is pending with
the
> Ministry of Home Affairs
>
> 4. Other than the case of Mohd Afsal. only ONE case is pending with
the
> Ministry of Home
> Affairs. It is of one Om Prakash of Uttaranchal received by them on
> 09-05-2003 (09-05-2003)..
>
> The above cituation poses many doubts viz.,
>
> (a) Is it obligatory for a convict to file a mercy petion after
> the punishment is confirmed
> by the Supreme Court
> (b) Is there any time-frame prescribed for filing mercy petion
> (c) Is the punishment is kept at susense till such time a mercy
> peition is filed as
> happend in the case of Afsal Guru where no mercy petition
> was filed by any
> one for 1 year and 2 months
> (d) When the convict does not seek any mercy by not filing a mercy
> peition, is the
> petition filed by his wife can be considered as his mercy
> petition
> (e) Why the Hon'ble Minister made a statement that Afsal Guru's
> petition is pending
> at the Rashtrapathi Bhavan as 22nd in the waiting when it was
> pending with his
> own Ministry and the Rashtrapati Bhavan has dispossed it off
> on the same date
> of receipt..
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
