No progress in Afzal Guru's case, reveals RTI query

Exactly a month after Afzal Guru, sentenced todeath for his role in the 2001 attack on Parliament, blamed the UPAGovernment for its indecision about his hanging, the Ministry of HomeAffairs' reply to an inquiry under the Right to Information (RTI) Actshows his case has hardly moved an inch.Guru had raised a few eyebrows when he claimed the suspense about hisfate was killing him, and only BJP leader L K Advani could take thedecision on his hanging.His mercy plea was filed barely a fortnight before the date of hisexecution on October 20, 2006. Since then, Guru's case has beenpending.Now, the ministry has, when asked under the RTI to provide details ofclemency petitions pending as on December 1, 2006, produced a reply byJoint Secretary (Judicial) P K Seth that Guru's case is "underexamination"."There are two cases of mercy petitions of condemned prisoners namelyMohammad Afzal, Delhi, and Gurmeet Singh, Uttar Pradesh, pending andunder examination of this Ministry," said the reply placed before theCentral Information Commission (CIC).Further, Joint Secretary Shashi Bhushan submitted in a hearing beforeChief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah on August 6 that theministry had hardly any proposal "under contemplation" to speed up theprocess of examining mercy petitions of condemned prisoners andexpeditious forwarding of the Government's recommendations to thePresident.The CIC was hearing an appeal from Mumbai resident Vats Raj on theneed to make the entire clemency process transparent in publicinterest....by Krishnadas राजगोपाल, Saturday, August 09, 2008 Indian Express