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4. In these petitions, we are concerned only with the rejection of the mercy petitions of the Petitioners by the President of India under Article 72 of the Constitution after the confirmation of death sentence by this Court, thus there is no need to traverse the factual details leading up to the imposition of death sentence.
5. Initially, the mercy petitions were filed before the Governor of Tamil Nadu on 17.10.1999 and the Governor, on 27.10.1999, rejected the same.

6. Consequently, the mercy petitions were forwarded to the President on 26.04.2000 for consideration under Article 72 of the Constitution. The President, on 12.08.2011, rejected these mercy petitions after a delay of more than 11 years. The rejection of the aforesaid petitions was communicated to the Petitioners on 25.08.2011. Subsequently, the said rejection was also challenged in W.P. Nos. 20287-20289 of 2011 before the Madras High Court on 29.08.2011. Later, by order dated 01.05.2012, in Transfer Petition (Criminal) Nos. 383-385 of 2011 and 462-464 of 2011, this Court transferred all the three writ petitions to this Court in the interest of justice. Pursuant to the aforesaid order, the Madras High Court transmitted the original records to this Court, which have been registered as Transferred Case (Criminal) Nos. 1-3 of 2012. All the Petitioners are currently lodged in the Central Prison, Vellore, Tamil Nadu and they are in incarceration since 1991, i.e., for more than two decades. .....

29. We are confident that the mercy petitions filed under Article 72/161 can be disposed of at a much faster pace than what is adopted now, if the due procedure prescribed by law is followed in verbatim. The fact that no time limit is prescribed to the President/Governor for disposal of the mercy petition should compel the government to work in a more systematized manner to repose the confidence of the people in the institution of democracy. Besides, it is definitely not a pleasure for this Court to interfere in the constitutional power vested under Article 72/161 of the Constitution and, therefore, we implore upon the government to render its advice to the President within a reasonable time so that the President is in a position to arrive at a decision at the earliest.

30. Before we conclude, we would also like to stress on one more aspect. We have learnt that the Union Government, considering the nature of the power under Article 72/161, set out certain criteria in the form of circular for deciding the mercy petitions. We hereby recommend that in view of the recent jurisprudential development with regard to delay in execution, another criteria may be added to the existing yardsticks so as to require consideration of the delay that may have occurred in disposal of a mercy petition.