April 18, 2013
H.E. The President of India,
Rashtrapati Bhavan,
New Delhi.
Re: My appeals for pardon/respite for (1)
Issaq Mohammed Hajwane (2) Sharif Abdul Gafoor Parker (3) Zaibunnisa
Kazi (4) Devender Pal Singh Bhullar and (5) Sanjay Dutt.
Your
Excellency,
I already
sent to you my appeals for pardon/respite to the above mentioned persons, which
have been received in your office. I pray that till the decision of my appeals
for pardon Your Excellency should grant respite, reprieve or suspension of the
sentence of these 5 persons till my pardon appeals are finally decided.
In this
connection I may refer to Article 72 (1) of the Constitution which states:
“The President shall have the power to grant pardons
reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute
the sentence of any person convicted of any offence”.
A perusal
of Article 72 (1) shows that the President has not only power to grant pardon,
but he has also the power to grant respite, reprieve or suspension of the
sentence.
It is
quite natural that before Your Excellency takes a final decision on my pardon
petition Your Excellency may like to consult legal and administrative experts
and would want the opinion of the Prime Minister, whom I met day before
yesterday in his office in connection with the same matter. Hence it is quite
likely that my pardon appeals may take some time to decide. Hence I
respectfully request that Your Excellency may grant respite, reprieves or
suspension of the sentence to these persons till the pardons appeal are decided, otherwise the pardon appeals may become
infructuous. Four out of the five
persons for whom I appealed for pardon are concerned with the Bombay bomb blast
case of 1993. Three of them are very old and may not survive in jail.
For
example, Issaq Mohammed Hajwane is now 89 years of age and I have annexed with
my pardon appeal his photographs showing that his body is almost a skeleton and
he has to be bodily carried for going to the bath room. Similarly, Gafoor
Parker whose photographs were also annexed to my earlier to you is about 80
years age. As regards Zaibunnisa Kazi, she is 73 years old having many medical
problems, and can hardly walk and talk. I am afraid these old people will not
survive in jail.
As regards Devender Pal Singh Bhullar, if
he is hanged my pardon appeal will become infructuous..
I also prayed for pardon to Sanjay Dutt
for the reason given in my letter to you dated March 28, 2013.
I therefore once again request you to
grant respite, reprieve or suspension of the sentence to the above mention
persons till my pardon petitions are decided, and direct that the sentences of
these 5 persons by the Supreme Court shall not be implemented till final
disposal of my pardon appeals.
Yours
faithfully,
(Justice
Markandey Katju)
Former Judge,
Supreme
Court of India
New
Delhi
