Any time limit on clemency sought by death row convict?

NEW DELHI, May 27: The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought response from the Union Home Ministry in four weeks on fixing a time limit for processing and placing before the President a mercy petition by a death row convict seeking clemency.
Making it clear that the Court can’t ask the President to decide a mercy petition in a time-frame, a bench comprising Chief Justice Sharad A. Bobde, and Justices A.S. Bopanna and Hrishikesh Roy said the only thing that they can do is to ask the Ministry of Home Affairs on the lime limit in placing the file before the President.
Chief Justice Bobde said, “Only thing we felt important was time limit and even for that we can't direct the President” and “only thing we may consider is directing MHA on time limit for placing it (mercy petition) before the President.”
The Court asked the MHA if there is a timeline for it to put the mercy petition before the President. It was hearing a PIL, seeking to put in place format for the disposal of mercy petitions by the President.
As advocate Kamal Gupta appearing for the petitioner Shiv K Tripathi addressed the court on putting in place the norms for deciding the mercy petition, CJI Bobde said: “format is not necessary. Only thing we felt important was time limit (in deciding the mercy petition.”
PIL petitioner Shiv K Tripathi bemoaned lack of guidelines for the Home Ministry to place the mercy plea before the President in a fixed time period. The petition says the absence of procedure, rules and guidelines for deciding a mercy petition in a time-bound manner results in “arbitrariness and discrimination in the disposal of the mercy petitions.”
Pointing out that any delay in deciding the mercy petition could be taken advantage of by the death row convicts, the PIL says: “The victims and their families feel cheated in such cases."