Failing to get pardon for 50 on Death Row, Kalam says let Patil decide

President Pratibha Patil has inherited a desk clear of any pending papers from her predecessor A P J Abdul Kalam.

President Pratibha Patil has inherited a desk clear of any pending papers from her predecessor A P J Abdul Kalam. Except for one sensitive, controversial dossier: the fate of an estimated 50 individuals on Death Row awaiting the Rashtrapati Bhavan’s decision on their pardon.

These include those convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, members of Veerappan’s gang and those who were convicted for the attack on former Youth Congress chief M S Bitta.

In fact, top sources have told The Sunday Express that one of the last notings that Kalam signed a day

or two before he demitted office was one in which he wrote, “These files may be put up to my successor for a decision.”

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That decision will be watched keenly given that Kalam himself, as first reported in The Indian Express in October, 2005, had raised a legal storm by writing to the Union Home Ministry advocating calling for pardon for most of these convicts. He is also understood to have asked that the convicts be treated with compassion, be provided counselling and spiritual guidance instead of the gallows, and allowed to spend their remaining years with their families.

The Home Ministry got back with the recommendation that the Government’s stand remained unchanged in all these cases: that these were not fit for Presidential pardon.

The only instance in which Kalam decided on rejecting the mercy petition — on the advice of the Home Ministry — was in the case of child rapist Dhananjay Chatterjee who was on August 14, 2004, became the 55th person to hang since Independence.

Although Article 72 of the Constitution says that “the President shall have the power to grant pardons,” it’s been interpreted to mean that, like in most matters, the President is bound by whatever advice the Council of Ministers gives on mercy petitions as well.

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These files have been pending for a while, some for as long as 10 years — Kalam himself inherited 12 mercy petitions from ex-President K R Narayanan, the number almost doubled during his five-year tenure.

Kalam’s aides are understood to have raised the issue of the unsigned mercy files with him during his last days in office but his reaction was the same philosophical one: “If I cannot give life to anyone, I don’t see why I should give death.”

Contrary to reports, the mercy petition of Parliament attack accused Afzal Guru has not reached Rashtrapati Bhavan since the advice of the Ministry of Home Affairs on whether the case is fit for Presidential pardon or not is still awaited.