Delay on part of the state government to execute a man convicted of six murders has helped him escape the gallows, as his sentence was converted to life term instead on Thursday.

Jagdish was found guilty of murdering his wife, and five children in 2005 in Madhya Pradesh by a trial court. The crime was motivated by suspicion of adultery.

A trial court sentenced him to be hanged on April, 24 2006. The case progressed through higher courts, all of which upheld his execution sentence. In October 2009, he filed a clemency please, which was rejected by the President on July 16, 2014, four-and-a-half years later. The same year, he approached the Supreme Court questioning the delay by the President in deciding on his mercy petition.

The top court found that his plea had not been forwarded to the Ministry of Home Affairs by the Madhya Pradesh government until October 2013, and the file reached the President's office only the year after.

"When a death sentence has to be executed," the bench comprising Justices NV Ramana, Deepak Gupta and Indira Banerjee said, "it should be done as early as possible. If mercy petitions are not forwarded for four years and no explanation is submitted, we cannot but hold that the delay is inordinate and unexplained."

The bench relied on this technicality to commute his death sentence to life, but keeping in mind the brutality of his crime, directed that Jagdish "shall not be released till his death".

This judgment could have implications on similar death row cases where there has been laxity to forward mercy pleas to the president or a hold-up.

Finding the delay disturbing, the bench remarked, "We are dealing with the case of a person who has been sentenced to death. The mercy petition is the last hope… The consequent delay in execution of death sentence for years on end is another form of punishment."