The Bombay High Court on Tuesday commuted the death sentences of two women to life sentences over the Maharashtra government’s inordinate delay and indifference in dealing with their mercy petitions.
Sisters Renuka Shinde and Seema Gavit convicted for kidnapping 13 children, killing some of them between 1990 and 1996.
In 2001, a trial court had sentenced them to death, the Bombay High Court had confirmed the same in 2004 and in 2006, the Apex Court too had upheld the capital punishment for them.
The mercy petition filed with the Governor of Maharashtra was rejected in 2013. The application to the President of India was rejected in 2014. Thereafter, a petition was filed in the High Court filed by the two sisters lodged at the Yerwada Central Jail in Pune in 2014.
The Division Bench of Justices Nitin Jamdar and Sarang Kotwal decided to commute the death penalty due to the delay by government authorities in deciding their mercy pleas.
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The bench observed that the government authorities, notably the state government, had behaved rashly, delaying procedure while knowing the seriousness of the matter, and failing to carry out the women’s death sentences despite the President’s rejection of their mercy applications over seven years ago.
It is stated by the Court added that while it acceded to prayer for commutation of death sentence, it cannot accept the request of releasing them forthwith as they have spent 25 years in prison and such a relief can be granted by the state in the form of remission.
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The High Court cited the judgment by the Apex Court in the case of Shatrughan Chauhan, which held that this additional period of incarceration stemming from unexplained delay by the State in dealing with their mercy petitions, which thus violated their fundamental right to life.
The Bench refused to release the petitioners forthwith on having completed 25 years of imprisonment.
“The crimes committed by the Petitioners are heinous. The brutality shown by the Petitioners in murdering innocent children is beyond words to condemn. While confirming the death sentence, the High Court found no mitigating circumstances, nor any material that the Petitioners could be reformed or introduced in the society as responsible citizens. The Supreme Court dismissed their appeals observing that there are no circumstances in favour of the Petitioners, and they were a menace to the society. Therefore, if and when the issue of remission of the Petitioners sentence arises for consideration, we have no doubt that the Competent Authority will consider the gravity of the offences, the adverse observations of this Court and the Supreme Court that the Petitioners are beyond being reformed,”
-the order reads.