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Governor Patil yet to clear mercy plea of Pakistani prisoner

JAIPUR: Nothing has happened to the mercy petition of Pakistani doctor Khalil Chishty, undergoing life sentence in the Ajmer Central Jail, even seven days after Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot forwarding it to the acting Governor Shivraj Patil. Worried over the precarious condition of the 78-year-old virologist, a heart patient who has fractured his hip, human rights activists are running from pillar to post for his early release and repatriation to Pakistan.

“Still on his table”

Mr. Patil, who arrived here from Chandigarh last Saturday, is scheduled to go out this Saturday and will come back on Sunday. During his stay, he did not meet any delegation or a public person other than bureaucrats. Initial reports said that after a meeting Additional Chief Secretary (Home) P.K. Deb, Mr. Patil had sought clarifications in the case. Thereafter, nothing has happened.

“The Governor has not sent the file out of his office. It is still on his table,” said Kavita Srivastava, general secretary, People's Union for Civil Liberties, Rajasthan. She has sent another appeal to Mr. Patil pointing out that the Governor had the powers to grant mercy to Dr. Chishty though his appeal is pending before the High Court.

‘No impediment'

“There can be no doubt that it is open to the Governor to grant a full pardon at any time even during the pendency of the case in exercise of what is ordinarily called ‘mercy jurisdiction'. Hence the pendency of an appeal in the High Court cannot be an impediment to the power of the Governor to grant a pardon,” Ms. Srivastava said in her letter.

‘Well within the law'

“You are well aware that you are well within the law to sign his mercy petition even though his appeal may be pending in the Rajasthan High Court. “While there may have been some judgments where the Supreme Court pointed out to the Governor to take a note of a pending appeal, those were two-judge Benches, like in the Narayan Dutt case of 2011. The settled law is from a judgment in the Nanavati's case, A.I.R.1961 S.C.112, which is of a Bench of five judges and it goes without saying that a larger Bench prevails over the decisions of a smaller Bench,” the letter said.

Murder case

Dr. Chishty is an Ajmer-born Pakistani who studied at Government High School in Ajmer and went to Karachi to study science along with his elder brother. This was during Partition.

The family got divided in this turbulent period with the parents and the younger brother staying on in Ajmer and the two elder sons continuing in Karachi. The murder in which Dr. Chishty got involved rather unwittingly took place on the premises of the famous Dargah of Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer in 1992 during a visit.

The trial, which lasted 18 years, almost left Dr. Chishty a cripple.

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