Supreme Court rejects blast convict Bhullar's plea

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has rejected the mercy petition of Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, who is on death row for a 1993 bomb blast in Delhi that killed nine people. A bench, comprising justices GS Singhvi and SJ Mukhopadhyay, on Friday rejected the plea to commute Bhullar's death sentence to life in prison, saying that delay in deciding a mercy plea cannot be the ground for leniency in a case where a person has been convicted under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA), or any other anti-terror statute.

"Such cases stand on an altogether different plane and cannot be compared with murders committed due to personal animosity or over property and personal disputes," the Supreme Court bench said.

Bhullar had filed a mercy petition in 2003, which was rejected by the President in 2011. His family had then moved the top court saying his death sentence should be commuted to life imprisonment as there was inordinate delay by the President in deciding his mercy plea.