Motherhood and mercy

Sir, - I have read with interest your well-balanced Editorial `Motherhood and mercy' (April 28) touching a highly delicate socio-legal issue involved in commuting the death sentence imposed on Nalini. There is some printing mistake in the legal maxim quoted by you. The correct text is as follows: Justitia (not `justica') non novit patrem nec matrem, solam veritatem spectat justitia. The meaning is: Justice knows neither father nor mother, but regards truth alone.

It is said that women who commit cold-blooded murder are comparatively more hard-hearted, cruel and daring than men. The plea of motherhood appears to be no ground for passing lesser sentence in the case of woman. Where a man and a woman are jointly charged with an offence, the court may often take the view that the woman acted under the influence of the man. If both parties are equally guilty the fact that one of them is a woman is not an extenuating circumstance, especially when dealing with an atrocious crime.

It is fundamental that the sex of the offender ought not to be taken into account in passing the sentence. The only justification of commutation of sentence passed on Nalini appears to be that `she was brainwashed and sucked into conspiracy', a theory which has not been accepted as an extenuating circumstance by the majority of the Supreme Court Bench.

V. K. Sathyavan Nair,

Kottayam (Kerala)

Sir, - The Latin maxim quoted in the Editorial that ``justice knows no mother or father'' is applicable only to the rendering of justice and not to the grant of pardon (mercy). Your Editorial misses the wood for trees. The right to pardon is derived from the ``Divine right of Kings'', which is beyond the domain of justice and truly belongs to the domain of mercy. Mercy is weighed altogether on a different scale - the lawbooks have no jurisdiction over it.

The prerogative of pardon conferred on the Governor or the President in our Constitution is derived from ``the divine right'' of monarchs and it is to be exercised solely by them. It is a subjective privilege over which the Council of Ministers (i.e. the executive) has no role to play. To what nobler cause can this ``divine mercy' be used than saving an innocent child from being dumped as an orphan due to the imperious operation of man-made laws whose severity is being humanised?

A. Kalyanaraman,

Chennai

Sir, - The commutation of death sentence passed on Nalini is purely a political decision and runs counter to justice. I disagree with your perception that the issues involved are complex and have a moral dimension. Criminals of ``an unmistakably terrorist organisation'' killed Rajiv Gandhi and others in ``an extraordinary depraved plot.''

The justice delivery system took an unreasonable time and finally pronounced the verdict. Any misplaced sympathy thereafter would only weaken the basic fabric of justice and help the anti-social elements under the garb of politics.

The appeal by Ms. Sonia Gandhi is irrelevant. Motherhood and mercy are only a mockery. If sympathy is to be extended to the mother, the same analogy should be applied to the father also and then extended to all the others. Capital punishment cannot be dispensed with till the crime graph comes down drastically.

S. Srimoolanathan,

Madurai

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