JUDGMENT

PATHAK, CJI. :— On 22 January, 1986 Kehar Singh was convicted of an offence under S. 120-B read with S. 302 of the Indian Penal Code in connection with the assassination of Smt. Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India, on 31st October, 1984 and was sentenced to death by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, New Delhi. His appeal was dismissed by the High Court of Delhi and his subsequent appeal by special leave (Criminal Appeal No. 180 of 1987) to this Court was dismissed on 3rd August, 1988 : (reported in AIR 1988 SC 1883). A review petition filed thereafter by Kehar Singh was dismissed on 7th September, 1988 and later a writ petition was also dismissed by this Court.

2. On 14th October, 1988 his son, Rajinder Singh, presented a petition to the President of India for the grant of pardon to Kehar Singh under Art. 72 of the Constitution. In that petition reference was made to the evidence on the record of the criminal case and it was sought to be established that Kehar Singh was innocent, and that the verdict of the Courts that Kehar Singh was guilty was erroneous. It was urged that it was a case for the exercise of clemency. The petition included a prayer that Kehar Si