President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam seems to be the only one who can save Mohammad Afzal Guru from the hanging rope now. On Friday, the Supreme Court dismissed the remedial petition - the final legal alternative available to an accused - of the Parliament attack convict, who has been sentenced to capital punishment and is in quest of a decision on his mercy plea from the President. The bench, including Justices K.G. Balakrishnan, B.N. Agrawal and P.P. Naolekar, did not come across any plus point in the petitions.

The court had before now cast off the review petitions against the August 4, 2005 trial court verdict upholding the death penalty, which had been confirmed by the Delhi High Court. In his remedial petition, Afzal had wanted keeping aside of his conviction and punish on the basis that he was not given a fair trial. Afzal had challenged that the ‘fundamental right to life’ under Article 21 of the Constitution comprised the right to fair trial and he was not given one for dearth of a capable lawyer defending him.

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