NEW DELHI: The ministry of home affairs has rejected the mercy petition of two sisters who were awarded death penalty for kidnapping and killing five young children. The mercy petition of Renukabai and Seema is now pending before President Pranab Mukherjee.MHA sent the recommendation for rejecting the petition on October 12, 2013. It was received by the President’s office on October 15 and has been pending since then. Significantly, the Supreme Court on January 21 set out guidelines for convicts on death row, including commuting of death sentence into life imprisonment if there was "undue, unexplained and inordinate delay in execution", either due to pendency of mercy petitions or an executive delay. This is the first case that the President will consider after the apex court order.The case relates to Renukabai who along with husband Kiran Shinde, sister Seema and mother Anjanabai were accused of kidnapping 13 children and killing nine of them. However, the courts could only conclusively prove murder in five cases. Anjanabai died and could not be tried while Kiran turned approver in the case.The two accused are from Maharashtra and found to be working in cities like Pune, Kolhapur and Nasik, kidnapping young children, sometimes only a few months old, to use them as cover for stealing and picking pockets. The accused would then kill the children and dump their bodies. According to the 2006 SC order, many of the children were below nine years.The decision of the lower court to award capital punishment was upheld by the Bombay high court. Keeping in view the horrific nature of the crime, the SC confirmed the sentence on August 31, 2006.The President’s power to grant pardon arises from Article 72 of the Constitution that empowers the President to pardon, grant reprieve or suspend, remit, commute sentence of person convicted of any offence. The President is guided by the home minister and the council of ministers.Constitutional experts have questioned whether the SC’s January 21 order was an instance of judicial over-reach since the Constitution does not prescribe any time limit to the process of commuting of death penalty. Experts also pointed out that presidential discretion in the matter was limited. If he did not agree with the advice given by the home ministry , the President could return the case with the recommendation of a re-think. However, he or she had to accept the recommendation sent by the ministry in the second instance leaving very little room for discretion.Previous Presidents who did not agree with the imposition of death penalty kept files hanging for several years. In sharp contrast, President Mukherjee has ordered the hanging of 21 convicts in 15 cases that were placed before him in the last two years. Only two hangings, including Mumbai terror attack convict Ajmal Kasab and Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, have taken place. He has commuted one death sentence to life imprisonment so far.