83 out of 112 mercy pleas rejected by president since 1981
6 Apr, 2013NGO Asian Centre for Human Rights had filed an RTI application seeking details of the mercy pleas rejected by the president.
The reply provided by the Ministry of Home Affairs has revealed that nine mercy petitions were pending before the President of India which includes convicts with death penalty from various states like Jafar Ali, Dharam Pal, Praveen Kumar, Sonia, Sanjeev, Sunder Singh, Shivu, Jadeswamy, B A. Umesh, Balwant Singh Rajoana and Manganlal. The reply states that since 1981 to 4 April 2013 the Presidents of India had considered 112 mercy pleas out of which 83 mercy petitions i.e. 74% of the mercy petitions were rejected while mercy pleas of only 31 death row-convicts were changed to life imprisonment.
Reply also shows that the current President Pranab Mukherji had recently refused the mercy pleas of nine death-row convicts.