India’s Supreme Court has rejected a petition by a death row prisoner to commute his sentence to life in jail.
The petition was filed by Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar on the basis that there had been “an inordinate delay” in deciding his mercy plea.
He has been on death row since August 2001 for a 1993 attack in Delhi which killed nine. His plea, filed in 2002, was denied by the president in 2011.
The landmark ruling is likely to have a bearing on several other similar cases.
There are 17 prisoners on death row whose mercy pleas have been rejected.
Three convicts on death row for the assassination of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and four associates of the notorious bandit Veerappan have also approached the Supreme Court to commute their death sentences on similar grounds.
Until recently, executions were rarely carried out in India, but in the last few months, India has carried out two hangings.
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