India's legal protocol to hang death row convicts

External affairs minister Salman Khurshid on Wednesday said India had completed all legal protocols before Mumbai terror attack convict Ajmal Kasab was executed.
The protocol India follows before a death row convict is hanged if he/she has filed a mercy petition:
 

• Trial Court: Finds the accused guilty, crime as the rarest of the rare cases and awards death penalty.
• High Court: Admits appeal against trial court verdict, but upholds findings of the trial court and the sentence.
• Supreme Court: Admits appeal against the high court judgment, but confirms findings of the rarest of the rare cases and sentence.
• State Governor: Accepts mercy petition and forwards it to the union home ministry through the state home ministry.
• Union Home Ministry: Considers the mercy petition and puts it up before the president with recommendation to reject.
• President: Considers the home ministry recommendations and rejects the plea. Sends file back to the union home ministry.
• Union Home Ministry: Sends the file to the state home ministry.
• State Home Ministry: Executes the convict at convenient time and place.