New Delhi: President A P J Abdul Kalam today (Jun 30, 2004) said he has not received any Home Ministry report on the mercy plea of Dhananjoy Chatterjee, who has been sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a school girl in Kolkata in 1990, and that a decision will be taken the day it comes.

"Right justice will be done," Kalam told reporters after giving away the Padma Awards to eminent personalities at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Observing that he was yet to receive the report, he said, "The day it comes, decision will be taken."

As is done in such cases, the President's Secretariat sends the petitions to the Home Ministry for its report.

The Supreme Court had earlier this month declined to entertain Chatterjee's plea against the West Bengal Governor's order rejecting his mercy petition on the ground that the President "is seized of the matter under Article 72 of Constitution".

This is Dhananjoy's second mercy petition before the President. His first one was rejected on June 23, 1994.

Dhananjoy was sentenced to death by a Calcutta Sessions Court on August 12, 1991 for the rape and murder of a teenager and the order was confirmed by the Calcutta High Court. Later, the Supreme Court also upheld the conviction and sentence in January 1994.