Context: President of India Droupadi Murmu has rejected the mercy petition of Mohammad Arif alias Ashfaq who is a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba and a citizen of Pakistan. He was sentenced to death in the December 2000 Red Fort attack where three Army personnel were killed.
Constitutional Provisions related to Mercy Petitions to the President
Article 72 of the Constitution empowers the President to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any person convicted of any offence –
- In all cases where the punishment or sentence is by a Court Martial.
- In all cases where the punishment or sentence is for an offence against any law relating to a matter to which the executive power of the Union extends.
- In all cases where the sentence is a sentence of death.
Pardoning power of President includes the following:
- Pardon: Removes both the sentence and the conviction and completely absolves the convict from all sentences, punishments and disqualifications.
- Commutation: Denotes the substitution of one form of punishment for a lighter form. For example, a death sentence may be commuted to rigorous imprisonment, which in turn may be commuted to a simple imprisonment.
- Remission: Implies reducing the period of sentence without changing the character. For example, a sentence of rigorous imprisonment for two years may be remitted to rigorous imprisonment for one year.
- Respite: Denotes awarding a lesser sentence in place of one originally awarded due to some special fact, such as the physical disability of a convict or the pregnancy of a woman offender.
- Reprieve: Implies a stay of the execution of a sentence (especially that of death) for a temporary period. Its purpose is to enable the convict to have time to seek pardon or commutation from the President.
Some more points:
- President must act based on the advice of Council of Ministers in mercy petititons (Maru Ram vs UOI case ,1981).
- In Kehar Singh case (1988), the Supreme Court examined the pardoning power of the President and laid down the following principles:
- The petitioner for mercy has no right to an oral hearing by the President:
- The President Can examine the evidence afresh and take a view different from the view taken by the court.
- The power is to be exercised by the President on the advice of the union cabinet.
- There is no need for the Supreme Court to lay down specific guidelines for the exercise of power by the President.
- The exercise of power by the President is not subject to judicial review except where the presidential decision is arbitrary, irrational, mala fide or discriminatory.