New Delhi: The government Tuesday urged the Supreme Court to reject the plea by three Rajiv Gandhi assassins seeking commutation of their death sentence to life, saying that they suffered no agony or dehumanisation during 11 years when their mercy petition was pending with the president.

Attorney General G E Vahanvati told an apex court bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam, Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Shiva Kirti Singh that the petition by the Rajiv Gandhi assassins was not covered by Jan 21 verdict of the apex court, which said that inordinate, unexplained, unreasonable delay was a ground for commuting death sentence into life imprisonment.