The Centre has told the Supreme Court that it has no problem with commutation of the death sentence of 1993 Delhi blast convict Devinderpal Singh Bhullar to life term. The Centre said, the petition in this regard has to be allowed in view of the court's verdict that delay in deciding mercy pleas can be a ground for such relief. Attorney General G E Vahanvati yesterday said this to the bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam which said that a short order will be pronounced on March 31.

The Attorney General further said that he was making the submissions to this effect as the Centre's petition challenging the January 21 judgement, in which it was held that inordinate delay by government in deciding mercy plea of death row convicts can be a ground for commuting their sentence, has been dismissed. He also said, there was, hence, no need to go into the merits of the curative petition filed by Bhullar's wife Navneet Kaur in this regard.

The Bench enquired about the health condition of Bhullar and perused the medical report of the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences. The Bench had on January 31 stayed Bhullar's execution and had agreed to review its judgement by which it had rejected Bhullar's plea to commute his death sentence to life term.