In Brief
B.A. Umesh was convicted of rape and murder in 1998 and sentenced to death. His mercy petition took over two years to be decided by both the Governor and President. Additionally, he was held in unlawful solitary confinement from 2006 to 2016, developing serious psychological illness as a result. The Supreme Court found that keeping him in solitary confinement violated established principles from Sunil Batra v. Delhi Administration, as he was not legally "under sentence of death" until his mercy petition was finally disposed. The Court commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment with a minimum of 30 years, finding that this constitutional violation combined with the mental health harm warranted relief under Article 21.
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