The union and state governments have informed the Bombay high court in their affidavits that there was no delay in deciding the mercy petitions filed by the two sisters Renuka Shinde and Seema Gavit from Kolhapur, who were sentenced to death in 2006 for murdering six children and abducting 13 others.
The Gavit sisters approached the high court seeking prohibition of the execution of death sentence and wanted it to be commuted to life imprisonment. The review mercy petition has also sought quashing and setting aside of the President's order rejecting the mercy petition, and declaring it as "illegal, void and unenforceable".
The petition claimed that a delay of eight years in deciding on the mercy petition was in "flagrant violation of Articles 21 and 14 (of the Constitution) and was unfair, cruel, excessive, unexplained and arbitrary." It said the delay had caused "immense mental torture, emotional and physical agony to the petitioners."
The affidavits filed by the union and state home ministries gave a sequence of dates during which the mercy petition files moved from one department to another, and were finally rejected by the President on July 7. "There has been no unreasonable delay and whatever delay that may have occurred is because of complying with procedure required to be followed at each level. All the authorities concerned have acted in good faith," they say.
The affidavits were filed on the direction of the high court, which had sought an explanation both governments while staying the execution of the sisters until a decision is taken regarding their mercy pleas. A division bench of Justices V M Kanade and Anuja Prabhudessai posted the next hearing to December 9.
Public Prosecutor Sandeep Shinde, has opposed the sisters' petition on grounds that considering the petition would mean interfering in the apex court order. He said, "When the high court order has merged with the supreme court order which confirmed the sentence, then even if a new cause of action arises, it cannot alter the final finding."
The sisters from Kolhapur were booked in 1996. The prosecution said they kidnapped the children to earn a living by turning them into beggars. Those who refused were killed mercilessly by the accused.
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