Supreme Court
 of India has dismissed the mercy petition of  Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar’s to  commute  his death sentence to life imprisonment.
Delivering the verdict, a bench of justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhaya said that the petitioners failed to make out a case for commutation of sentence on the ground of delay in deciding mercy plea.
The apex court had reserved its order on April 19 last year on the plea of Bhullar’s family which had filed a petition on his behalf.
They had pleaded that his capital punishment be commuted to life imprisonment as there has been inordinate delay in deciding his mercy plea and he is not mentally sound.
It was submitted that prolonged incarceration of a death row convict awaiting his or her execution amounted to cruelty and violated the fundamental right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution.
The verdict will pave the way for his hanging and is likely to have an impact on 17 other convicts on the death row including those held guilty in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
Bhullar was awarded death penalty for triggering a bomb blast in New Delhi in September 1993, killing nine people and injuring 25 others, including then Youth Congress president M S Bitta.
The apex court had on March 26, 2002, dismissed Bhullar’s appeal against the death sentence awarded by a trial court in August 2001 and endorsed by the Delhi High Court in 2002.
He had filed a review petition which was also dismissed on December 17, 2002. Bhullar had then moved a curative petition which too had been rejected by the apex court on March 12, 2003.
Bhullar, meanwhile, had filed a mercy petition before the President on January 14, 2003. The President dismissed his mercy plea on May 25, 2011.
Bhullar, a graduate in electrical engineering from Guru Nanak Engineering College, Ludhiana, served as professor in different technical colleges of Punjab.