CHENNAI, June 19: The Centre today informed the Madras High Court that the details of execution of condemned prisoners are conveyed to state governments concerned in advance and it was followed in the case of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.
In a counter affidavit filed against a petition, which alleged that the execution of Guru was shrouded in secrecy, the Home Ministry said the Delhi government was informed of his execution in advance and government conducted the execution as per the jail manual.
The question of making public details of when the execution would be made was with the purview of the state government, which would execute it as per the jail manual, it said.
Additional Solicitor General P Wilson said in the case of the mercy petitions getting rejected by the President, the state governments are informed about the execution and the governments inform the prisoners about it and execute them as per the jail manual.
He asked when the persons concerned are informed, where is the question of making the details public.
A Division Bench, comprising Justice Elipe Dharma Rao and Justice M Venugopal, adjourned the matter for June 21.
A petition by an advocate Pugazhendhi sought to restrain the Home Ministry from executing any convict facing death penalty without first disclosing to the public about the rejection of his mercy petition by the President under Article 72 of the Constitution.
It alleged that Guru’s execution was carried out on February 9 in a hurried manner and shrouded in secrecy.
Guru was hanged at Tihar jail in Delhi on that date after the President rejected his mercy petition. Guru was convicted in the 2001 Parliament attack case and sentenced to death by the Supreme Court in 2004.
Five heavily-armed gunmen surrounded the Parliament complex and opened indiscriminate fire, killing nine persons on December 13, 2001. (PTI)
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