HYDERABAD: The state, instead of delaying a decision for years on the mercy petitions of prisoners who were awarded capital punishment, should expeditiously act on them, former additional solicitor-general KTS Tulsi said at the 17th Commonwealth Law Conference here today.
Speaking on ‘Death Penalty’ on the third day of the five-day conference, he said that in many cases it took a decade or more for decisions to come out on mercy petitions in India. “You cannot keep a person on the death row like this as the person would lose his mind and you cannot execute an insane person,'' he said.
“There are situations in which death sentence is the only just remedy. We cannot be such sentimentalist so as to endanger the life of society. I am only asking for justice and there are cases in which death sentences are the only just punishment,” Tulsi said while supporting award of capital punishment.
“If we abolish death sentence, there will be another hijacking of a plane and there can be a demand for release of terror accused Kasab in exchange of passengers,” he remarked.
According to Tulsi, only 40 death sentences have been awarded in India since 1975 whereas in the United States, which has a population of about 10 per cent of India's, 37 executions are carried out per year.
During another session Commonwealth secretary-general Kamalesh Sharma said ‘rule of law’ was the core of Commonwealth values. He praised India's association with Commonwealth and described it as deep-rooted. On Pakistan's return to the Commonwealth, Sharma said “We were delighted that Pakistan returned to our council after democratic elections and the reinstatement of the judiciary.''