New Delhi (September 26, 2011): The Supreme Court of India has declined further adjournment of hearing plea of sentence conversion/reduction for Professor Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, who is facing execution threat in India. The court today pulled up death row convict Devender Pal Singh Bhullar’s counsel for seeking repeated adjournments and blaming government for delay in carrying out the execution of the capital punishment.
“You are complaining about delay on the part of the government but you are seeking adjournments every time. It is strange that sometimes you say the arguing counsel is not there or you will say the instructing counsel is not there.
“We will not allow any adjournment. We will hear the matter,” the bench told a junior counsel who sought adjournment of the case on the ground that the arguing counsel was not available.
However, after the counsel repeatedly pleaded for adjournment at least by a week, the bench said it would hear the matter on Wednesday.
It is notable that Bhullar’s review plea under Article 72 of Indian Constitution was kept hanging by the Government of India and the President of India for more than eight years, before it was finally rejected in May 2011.