In a major relief to three condemned prisoners in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, the Supreme Court on Tuesday commuted their death sentence to life imprisonment, holding that the 11-year long delay in deciding their mercy petition had a dehumanising effect on them.

A bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam said that the delay was not only inordinate but also unreasonable and unexplained.

The court said that life imprisonment would mean life in jail till end.

The bench, also comprising justices Ranjan Gogoi and SK Singh, rejected the contentions advanced by Attorney General GE Vahanvati on behalf of the central government.

The court said that though there is no time limit given in deciding the mercy petition by the President, but it was incumbent upon the government to decide the same at the earliest.

It rejected the Centre’s submission that there was no unreasonable delay in deciding their mercy plea and the condemned prisoners did not go through agonising experience as they were enjoying life behind the bars.

The bench said they are unable to accept the Centre’s view and commuted the death sentence of convicts – V Sriharan alias Murugan, AG Perarivlan alias Arivu and T Suthendraraja alias Santhan – to imprisonment for life subject to remission by the government.

It asked the Centre to give timely advice to the President so that mercy petitions can be decided without unreasonable delay.

“We implore the government to render advice in reasonable time to the President,” the bench said, adding that “the executive should exercise its power one way or other in reasonable time”.

It said the government should handle the cases of mercy petitions in a more systematised manner. “We are confident that mercy plea can be decided at much faster speed than what is being done now,” the bench said.

While rejecting the government’s contention that it was incumbent upon the death row convicts to prove that they have suffered torture and dehumanisation during the pendency of the mercy petition, the court said there is nothing in Indian law and international law that puts the burden of proving torture and dehumanising condition on the death row convicts.

Gandhi was killed in 1991. His assassins were convicted by a TADA court in January 1998 and were awarded death sentence, which was confirmed by the apex court on May 11, 1999.

The three assassins sought the commutation of their death sentence to life imprisonment on account of the inordinate delay of nearly 11 years in deciding their mercy petitions.

The bench had reserved its verdict on February 4.

In May and June when millions of pilgrims throng Rishikesh and Haridwar in Uttarakhand to take holy dip, levels of antibiotic-resistant ‘superbugs’ have been found 60 times greater than other times of the year, shows research.
After studying water samples taken from the upper Ganges river, experts from the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi (IIT-Delhi) and Newcastle University, Britain, revealed that the spread of antibiotic-resistance to one of the most pristine locations in Asia is linked to the annual human pilgrimages to the region.
“This is not a local problem – it is a global one,” said Professor David Graham, an environmental engineer from Newcastle University in Britain.
“We focused on pilgrimage areas because we suspected such locations would provide new information about resistance transmission via the environment,” he added.
The specific resistance gene called ‘blaNDM-1’ causes extreme multi-resistance in many bacteria, therefore, it must be understood how this gene spreads in the environment.

By comparing water quality of the upper Ganges, the team showed that levels of ‘blaNDM-1’ were 20 times higher per capita during the pilgrimage season than at other times.
Monitoring levels of other contaminants in the water, the team showed that overloading of waste treatment facilities was likely to blame and that in many cases, untreated sewage was going straight into the river where the pilgrims bathe.
“The bugs and their genes are carried in people’s guts. If untreated wastes get into the water supply, resistance potential in the wastes can pass to the next person and spiralling increases in resistance can occur,” the researchers warned.
“If we can stem the spread of such antibiotic resistant genes locally – possibly through improved sanitation and waste treatment – we have a better chance of limiting their spread on larger scales,” contended Grahem who has spent over 10 years studying the environmental transmission of antibiotic resistance around the world.
The concern is growing worldwide over the threat from bacteria that are resistant to the so-called ‘last resort’ class of antibiotics known as Carbapenems – especially if resistance is acquired by aggressive pathogens.
The research team are now calling on governments around the world to recognise the importance of clean drinking water in their fight against antibiotic resistance.

Archaeological Department has confirmed that Ram, Lakshman and Sita stayed in Korba caves during their exile.

One of the caves contains ancient idols of Ram, Sita and Laxman.

A temple built during ‘Satyug’ has two foot prints believed to be those of Sita.

A man died after he was attacked by a cobra and couldn’t be taken to the hospital as the snake refused to move from the door entrance for the entire night.

The incident was reported from Indore where a cobra bit a man in the middle of the night while he was sleeping. His wife and family members were unable to take him to the hospital as the cobra sat at the door entrance and refused to move until next morning.

Looking at husband’s deteriorating condition, wife broke the wall of the house but by the time they reached the hospital, husband had succumbed to his injuries.

In what can termed as complacency and reprehensible laxity on the part of Dehmi Kalan village administration, Bhagwansahay Kumawat’s family was taken aback after they read extremely inaccurate and misleading information on their new ration cards.
According to the details printed on the ration card, Bhagwansahay’s wife Santosh Devi is just an year elder to her daughter and 2 and 3 years elder to her two sons.
While Bhagwansahay’s age was printed as 33 years, Santosh Devi’s age was shown as 16 years and the daughter’s age in the card read 15 years. The age of Bhagwansahay’s two sons read 14 and 13 years. Moreover, the names of family members were missing and BPL was mis-spelt as APL.
If this was not enough, Hiralal Kumawat, Bhagwansahay’s younger brother, who is married to Santosh Devi’s sister, also witnessed similar errors. While his age read 33 years, his wife’s age read 30 years which was almost 14 years more than that of her sister Santosh Devi.
The village head Om Parkash accepted that the information in the ration cards were extremely misleading and that forms were being filled to issue new ration cards with correct information, he told.