New Delhi:
The Supreme Court has stayed the execution of two death row convicts who were scheduled to hang tomorrow. The duo had moved the top court seeking commutation of their sentence citing a six-year-delay in the rejection of their mercy petition by the President. Their plea for mercy was turned down on the 13th of this month.
The petitioners, Shivu and Jadeswamy, were sentenced to death in July 2005 for the rape and murder of an 18-year-old girl in Chamarajnagar district in Karnataka.
The verdict was upheld by the Karnataka High Court and later confirmed by the Supreme Court in 2007.
On the 8th of this month, the court had stayed the execution of a man who was sentenced to death for beheading his five daughters following an argument with his two wives.
The top court has now clubbed Shivu and Jadeswamy's petition with a batch of similar ones filed by other death row convicts, including associates of sandalwood smuggler Veerappan, who say that they should not be hanged because of a nine-year delay in the rejection of their appeals for mercy by the President.
The batch of petitions will be now heard by a constitution bench that will determine questions relating to the delay in disposal of their mercy petitions.