SC declines to entertain Dhananjoy's plea

With the Supreme Court declining to entertain Chatterjee's plea against the order rejecting his mercy petition, the ball is now in the President's court.

With the Supreme Court on Friday declining to entertain Dhananjoy Chatterjee's plea against the West Bengal Governor's order rejecting his mercy petition, the ball is now in the President's court who would decide the fate of the man sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a school girl in Kolkata in 1990.

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A vacation bench of Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice P V Reddi, closed the matter "in view of the fact that the President of India is seized of the matter under Article 72 of Constitution".

It would be Dhananjoy's second mercy petition before the President. His first one was rejected on June 23, 1994.

Dhananjoy was sentenced to death by a Calcutta Sessions court on August 12, 1991 for the rape and murder of a school girl and the order was confirmed by the Calcutta High Court. Later, the Supreme Court also upheld his convision and sentence in January 1994.

The order came after West Bengal Standing Counsel Tarachandra Sharma informed the court that the convict's execution has already been stayed following a communication to the State Government from Union Home Ministry on Thursday and that the President was considering the mercy petition filed by his family members and others.

Dhananjoy's brother Bikas Chatterjee had moved the apex court challenging the Governor's June 2, 2004 order rejecting the convict's mercy plea. His earlier mercy plea was rejected by the Governor on February 16, 1994.

His counsel Colin Gonsalves wanted to keep the petition alive or at least liberty to agitate the issue at a later stage, but the court did not oblige him.

Sharma submitted that both the President and the West Bengal Governor have already rejected the mercy plea of the convict and the Supreme Court had also dismissed his appeal and review petition.

"How many mercy petitions will he file? There must be an end to it," the state counsel told the court.

He said the convict deliberately did not inform the Kolkata High Court about the rejection of his first mercy petition by the Governor and enjoyed the stay on his execution till Friday.

The delay in execution caused in this manner cannot be a ground for claiming a relief from the court, Sharma said.

In his petition filed in the apex court, convict's brother Bikas Chatterjee had challenged the Governor's order on the ground of "non-application of mind as to the mitigating circumstances" of the case by the Governor.

The petitioner had contended that the Governor went solely by the nature of the crime and he was not apprised of the material facts of the case and the mercy petition was dismissed without following the procedure established and required by the law.

The petitioner had also submitted that no legal aid was provided to the convict challeging the Governor's order by the Calcutta High Court.

Further, the death sentence awarded to Dhananjoy Chatterjee remained unexecuted for 10 years due to procedural wranglings, he had submitted.