SC further said there has to be a minimum 14-day gap between the information given to condemned prisoner about rejection of mercy plea and the actual execution date.
This will give the condemned prisoner an opportunity to either challenge the rejection, eat the food he likes, meet family, relatives and friends, the top court said.
The apex court said all condemned prisoners are entitled to free legal aid to draft mercy petitions and challenge its rejection.
Every person on death row, whether convicted for multiple murder or terrorism cases, will have a right to approach SC to challenge the rejection of their mercy petitions on grounds of inordinate delay in deciding the mercy plea, the court said.
Condemned prisoner Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar would benefit from this judgment as the SC disagreed with an earlier judgment which had said inordinate delay would not be applicable to terrorism cases.
The court also made post mortem mandatory after execution of condemned prisoners to find out if hanging by noose in reality is the least painful method to snuff out life.
