The Central government on Tuesday opposed in the Supreme Court a plea by the convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case seeking to commute the death penalty to life sentence due to delay in deciding their mercy plea. <br /><br />Opposing the plea, the Centre submitted in the SC that the death convicts did not go through torture, agony and dehumanising experience during pendency of their mercy pleas. <br /><br />"There has been delay in deciding the mercy plea but the delay is not unreasonable, unexplainable and unconscionable to commute death sentence," the Centre's counsel said. <br /><br />"It is not a fit case for commuting death sentence," the counsel added. <br /><br />Meanwhile, arguments have completed with the SC reserving its verdict in the case. <br /><br />Last week, the apex court had said that prisoners convicted in the case deserve death sentence while refusing to go into the merits of their conviction. <br /><br />"They deserve death sentence, but the question is how long can they be kept in solitary confinement," a bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam said, while restraining the counsel appearing for the death row convicts to argue on the merit of the conviction. <br /><br />For More information on this news visit : http://www.newsx.com/<br />Connect with us on Social platform at : http://www.facebook.com/newsxonline<br />Subscribe to our YouTube Channel : http://www.youtube.com/newsxlive
