The Supreme Court on Monday commuted the death sentence of 1993 terror convict Devinderpal Singh Bhullar to life imprisonment on the grounds of inordinate delay in deciding his mercy petition and on the grounds of mental illness.

The apex court bench of Chief Justice P. Sathasivam, Justice R.M. Lodha, Justice H.L. Dattu and Justice S.J. Mukhopadyaya while commuting the death sentence to life imprisonment referred to the apex court's January 21, 2014 verdict which said that inordinate, unexplained or unreasonable delay in deciding mercy petition was dehumanizing to death row convict and was a ground for commuting death sentence to life imprisonment.

Earlier, the Centre told the Supreme Court that it has "no problem" with commutation of death sentence of Bhullar to life term and the petition in this regard has to be allowed in view of the court's verdict that delay in deciding mercy pleas can be a ground for such relief.

The bench had on January 31 stayed Bhullar's execution and had agreed to review its judgement by which it had rejected the 1993 Delhi bomb blast convict's plea to commute his death sentence to life term.

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Source: India Today, March 31, 2014