01 September 2004 :

The Indian People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) filed a public interest litigation petition in the Supreme Court highlighting the plight of 55 prisoners sentenced to death and languishing in various jails in the country's Bihar district. The PUCL pleaded for commuting their term to life imprisonment on the ground that there had been an inordinate delay in their execution.
The PUCL quoted a recent newspaper report on the 55 condemned prisoners and said that "the constant fear and trauma of the death sentence for several years and delay not attributable to the convicts is in violation of Article 21 of the Constitution."