The President has commuted death sentence of Balwant Singh Rajoana who was the back-up suicide bomber in the plot to assassinate Beant Singh, the former Congress chief minister of Punjab. The attempt also killed 16 others, including three Commandoes, outside the Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh in 1995. The President has commuted death sentences to life imprisonment in at least 20 cases over the past nine years, based on the recommendations received from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

Clemency powers of the President under article 72:

It says that the President shall have the power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any person convicted of any offence.

• Pardon –A pardon completely absolves the offender from all sentences and punishment and disqualifications and places him in the same position as if he had never committed the offence.
• Commutation– Commutation means exchange of one thing for another. In simple words to replace the punishment with less severe punishment. For example for Rigorous imprisonment-simple imprisonment.
• Reprieve– Reprieve means temporary suspension of death sentence. For example-  pending a proceeding for pardon or commutation.
• Respite – Respite means awarding a lesser punishment on some special grounds. For example- the Pregnancy of women offender.
• Remission– Remission means the reduction of the amount of sentence without changing its character, for example, a sentence of 1 year may be remitted to 6 months. 

The President can exercise these powers:

1. In all cases where the punishment or sentence is by a court martial;
2. In all cases where the punishment or sentence is for an offence against any law relating to a matter to which the executive power of the Union extends;
3. In all cases where the sentence is a sentence of death.

The pardoning power of President is wider than the governor and it differs in the following two ways:

1. The power of the President to grant pardon extends in cases where the punishment or sentence is by a Court Martial but Article 161 does not provide any such power to the Governor.
2. The President can grant pardon in all cases where the sentence given is sentence of death but pardoning power of Governor does not extend to death sentence cases.

Key facts:

• This power of pardon shall be exercised by the President on the advice of Council of Ministers.
• Further, the constitution does not provide for any mechanism to question the legality of decisions of President or Governors exercising mercy jurisdiction.
• But the Supreme Court in Epuru Sudhakar case has given a small window for judicial review of the pardoning powers of President and governors for the purpose of ruling out any arbitrariness.
• The court has earlier held that court has retained the power of judicial review even on a matter which has been vested by the Constitution solely in the Executive.