President's Right to Forgive

There has been much hue and cry on the hanging of Afzal Guru, the punished pertrator of Atack on Indian Parliament, as early as 2001. The Apex Court of India found and concluded that Afzal was involved in the terror attacks on the Parliament.

The drama started then. Guru applied for clemency to the President, who then was Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. For the last two or more years his applicaation for clemency is doing the rounds of the various tables of Union and State of Delhi Government.

Politics apart, a ridiculous thing is that in the name of clemency petetion to the President, a Supreme Court judgement is being subjected to the srutiny by the executive! This is the clear cut violation of the ethical prctice and theory of "judicial supremacy".

It may be reminded that the Presidents has been given the clemency power as merely a symbol for his recognition as the head of State. If he is not using that power and it has been assigned to the babu's, it is not justified. If the President uses his descretion and reasoning in allowing or rejecting a clemency petition then only has this right of the President any reasoning and rationale. Otherwise, we are subjecting Supreme Court's rulings as well as President's dignity to the executive scrutiny, anexecutive that is very much political in nature. Afzal Guru's case is the shining example of this.