Delhi Sentence Review Board to rule on Bhullar’s plea for early release in 4 week | Chandigarh News
The Delhi-based Sentence Review Board has informed the Punjab and Haryana High Court that it will decide on Davinder Pal Singh Bhullar’s petition for early release within four weeks. Bhullar is a convict in the 1993 Delhi bomb blast case.
This update was presented by Rabendra Singh Bisht, Dealing Assistant, representing the State of Delhi and the Sentence Review Board, before Justice Jasjit Singh Bedi’s bench. Bisht clarified that the petition for Bhullar’s early release is currently under consideration by the Board and a decision will be reached within the next four weeks.
Justice Bedi scheduled the case for hearing on October 18.
The High Court is examining Bhullar’s petition, in which he is seeking to nullify an order that denied his request for premature release. Bhullar, through his counsel Vijay K Jindal and Vipul Jindal, argued in his 2022 petition that he has already served over 27 years of his sentence, whereas according to rules he was required to undergo only 14 years of actual sentence, or 20 years sentence, including remissions. He further contended that his plea for early release has been repeatedly deferred without proper
consideration and for no substantial reasons.
Bhullar, a death row convict in the 1993 Delhi bomb blasts case, has been incarcerated since 1994. His plea for permanent release has been pending with the Delhi government led by AAP.
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In March 2002, the Supreme Court dismissed Bhullar’s appeal against the death sentence imposed by a trial court and upheld by the Delhi High Court.
In the subsequent year, the apex court rejected Bhullar’s curative petition, prompting him to file a mercy plea before the President.
Following President Pratibha Patil’s denial of his mercy petition in May 2011, Bhullar’s family approached the Supreme Court again, seeking
commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment due to undue delay in the rejection of his mercy plea.
The Supreme Court once again rejected this plea in 2013. Ultimately, on March 31, 2014, upon reviewing its 2013 ruling, the Supreme Court commuted Bhullar’s death sentence to life imprisonment, citing excessive delay in deciding his mercy petition.