<p>The Centre today directed all states to take "urgent suitable action" in implementing the Supreme Court's guidelines for safeguarding the interest of the death row convicts.<br /><br /></p>.<p>In a communication, the Home Ministry said the court had examined several individual death row cases and commuted capital punishment of the petitioners to life imprisonment.<br /><br />"You are requested to take urgent suitable action for implementing the orders of the Supreme Court in your state/ Union Territories," Joint Secretary in the Home Ministry S Suresh Kumar said in the communication accessed by PTI.<br /><br />The Ministry said the apex court had said legal aid should be provided to the convicts at all stages even after the rejection of mercy petition.<br /><br />Hence, Superintendents of Jail are directed to intimate the rejection of mercy petitions to the nearest legal aid centre apart from intimating the convicts.<br /><br />It said the convict has a constitutional right under Article 72 of the Constitution to make a mercy petition and hence the rejection of the mercy plea by the President should forthwith be communicated to the convict and his family in writing.<br /><br />It would be mandatory for prison authorities to facilitate and allow a final meeting between the prisoner and his family and friends prior to his execution.<br /><br />Following the hanging of Parliament attack case convict Afzal Guru about a year ago, his family members had complained that they were not informed in advance about his scheduled execution at Tihar Jail in Delhi.<br /><br />The family had said they received the information only after his hanging, that too through the media.<br /><br />Facing flak, the Home Ministry had claimed that they sent a letter to Guru's family in Kashmir through SpeedPost which the family received a few days after his execution.</p>
<p>The Centre today directed all states to take "urgent suitable action" in implementing the Supreme Court's guidelines for safeguarding the interest of the death row convicts.<br /><br /></p>.<p>In a communication, the Home Ministry said the court had examined several individual death row cases and commuted capital punishment of the petitioners to life imprisonment.<br /><br />"You are requested to take urgent suitable action for implementing the orders of the Supreme Court in your state/ Union Territories," Joint Secretary in the Home Ministry S Suresh Kumar said in the communication accessed by PTI.<br /><br />The Ministry said the apex court had said legal aid should be provided to the convicts at all stages even after the rejection of mercy petition.<br /><br />Hence, Superintendents of Jail are directed to intimate the rejection of mercy petitions to the nearest legal aid centre apart from intimating the convicts.<br /><br />It said the convict has a constitutional right under Article 72 of the Constitution to make a mercy petition and hence the rejection of the mercy plea by the President should forthwith be communicated to the convict and his family in writing.<br /><br />It would be mandatory for prison authorities to facilitate and allow a final meeting between the prisoner and his family and friends prior to his execution.<br /><br />Following the hanging of Parliament attack case convict Afzal Guru about a year ago, his family members had complained that they were not informed in advance about his scheduled execution at Tihar Jail in Delhi.<br /><br />The family had said they received the information only after his hanging, that too through the media.<br /><br />Facing flak, the Home Ministry had claimed that they sent a letter to Guru's family in Kashmir through SpeedPost which the family received a few days after his execution.</p>