Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar -- on death row since 2001 for triggering a bomb blast in September 1993, in which nine people were killed -- had approached the apex court citing "an inordinate delay" in deciding his mercy plea by Indian President.

　　In fact, then Indian President Pratibha Patil took eight years to reject his clemency petition in 2011.

　　Dismissing the 48-year-old convict's petition Friday, a two- judge bench said: "The petitioner has not been able to make out a case for commuting his sentence."

　　Bhullar was a member of Khalistan Liberation Force, a militant group fighting to create a Sikh homeland called Khalistan in the northern state of Punjab.

　　The ruling by the Supreme Court will pave the way for the hanging of 17 other prisoners currently on death row in India, and whose mercy petitions have been rejected by the President, including three assassins of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

　　India rarely executed prisoners till last year.

　　But, in the last six months, two prisoners were hanged. While Mohammed Ajmal Amir Qasab, the only terrorist caught alive in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, was executed in November, Afzal Guru, a native of Kashmir, was hanged this February for masterminding the 2001 attack on Indian Parliament.