The High court bench comprising justices C. Nagappan and M. Sathayanarayanan observed there had been a delay of over 11 years in the disposal of the mercy petitions filed by the convicts to the President seeking clemency. They admitted the writ petitions and issued notices to the Centre, the state and to the Tamil Nadu police.

The mercy petitions of the three convicts were rejected by President Pratibha Patil early this month.

Meanwhile the Tamilnadu Assembly today unanimously adopted a resolution requesting the President of India to reconsider the mercy petitions filed by the three convicts to commute their death sentence to life imprisonment.