Sopw- Prof. Devinderpal Singh Bhullar Update

[SOPW]

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Tuesday (10/04/2012) Prof. Devinderpal Singh Bhullar faced their fourth hearing in relation to their appeal of the 2001 imposed death sentence. This coming Thursday will be their fifth hearing.

In India there are 47 death-row cases pending final outcomes. Of these 47 cases, 5 are for Political prisoners – they are listed below:

1) Prof. Devinderpal Singh Bhullar

2) Murugan alias Sriharan, T Suthendraraja alias Santhan and A G Perarivalan alias Arivu (Rajiv Gandhi’s Killers)

3) Afzal Guru

4) Mahendra Nath Das

5) Kamal Shah (Now deceased after committing suicide)

The Supreme Court of India has now decided to set up guidelines and procedures to follow with regards to prison inmates who sit on death row. Previously, sentences were passed down with no real set guidelines for judges to follow. With such high importance of cases, this often lead to inconsistency of application of capital punishment as a sentence.

The courts have further decided to hear to each case twice a week; one hearing each for Tuesday’s and Thursday’s though it is still unclear which of the following two modus operandi they will use:

A) Hear each appeal in turn and then confirm and accept or refuse and reject the sentence passed in earlier judicial proceedings, or

B) Hear all 47 pending appeals and then make a decision in totum or on each case

The Supreme Court is also adjudicating on whether the death sentence would be “fair” in application in such cases where consideration for the amount of time spent in incarceration may need to be taken into account. This is particularly relevant as the life sentence is often 14 years and in many cases prisoners have been denied their liberty for far longer. With this review there is an anticipated decision as to whether the death penalty should be an “allowable” verdict for those proven to be suffering from any psychological illnesses. The United Nations has passed several resolutions and under International law this is prohibited (1984, 1997, 2000. As an international comparison, the United States of America, a country where several states allow for capital punishment, bans such executions in its constitution – a document written and signed by the Founding Fathers in 1787.

It appears that judges in the lower courts are also becoming increasingly averse to using capital punishment. For example, in 2007 several high profile cases involving pre-meditated murders, rape and murder of minors during rioting, terrorist bombings, etc. have not attracted the death penalty. However, activists have revealed a fatal flaw in any assumption that this would lead to a real reduction in the amount of death sentences passed – in the absence of sentencing guidelines in what constitutes “rarest of the rare”, in some less gruesome murders, the lower courts have often awarded capital punishment often not due to their own reluctance but due to the poor defence presented by the lawyers of the economically weak.

We will provide you all with updates as we get them.

Thank you for you continuous support.

[JSinghnz]

Are you guys aware of this,

18 Year Old Nihang Singh Tortured By Police

http://www.sikhsangat.com/Index.php?/topic/66273-18-year-old-nihang-singh-tortured-by-police/

Is anything being done to him released from police custody?