Right against Delayed Execution

In T.V. Vatheeswaram v. State of Tamil Nadu[xcv], the Supreme Court held that delay in
execution of death sentence exceeding 2 years would be sufficient ground to invoke protection
under Article 21 and the death sentence would be commuted to life imprisonment. The cause of the
delay is immaterial, the accused himself may be the cause of the delay.

In Sher Singh v. State of Punjab[xcvi], the Supreme Court said that prolonged wait for execution
of a sentence of death is an unjust, unfair and unreasonable procedure and the only way to undo that
is through Article 21. But the Court held that this cannot be taken as the rule of law and applied to
each case and each case should be decided upon its own faces.