Death row sisters move HC against sentence

Two sisters from Kolhapur whose mercy petitions against capital punishment were rejected by the President recently, moved the Bombay High Court on Tuesday praying their death sentence be commuted to life imprisonment.

The sisters—Renuka Shinde and Seema Gavit—have, in their petition, contended that the President had taken more than five years to decide their mercy petitions when such a plea should have been disposed of within three months.

On this ground alone, their death sentence may be commuted to life term, the duo prayed.

The petition, filed through their lawyer Sudeep Jaiswal, came up before Justices V M Kanade and P D Kode who posted it for hearing on Wednesday.