Death-row convicts too have right to life, says SC

R Sedhuraman

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, May 27

The Supreme Court today ruled that the convicts sentenced to death would continue to enjoy their fundamental right to life even after affirmation of the penalty by the apex court.

In other words, the death row convicts could be executed only after they had exhausted all the legal and administrative remedies available to them under law, a vacation Bench comprising Justices AK Sikri and UU Lalit explained.

The SC made the clarification while quashing the warrants of execution issued by a sessions court in Amroha, Uttar Pradesh, for hanging a young couple sentenced to death for the gruesome murder of seven members of the girl’s family. The convicts, Shabnam and Saleem, had committed the crime as her parents and other family members objected to their affair and marriage plan.

The Bench said that after the SC had upheld the death penalty awarded to convicts involved in ghastly crimes, they should be allowed to seek a review of the SC verdict within the stipulated 30 days, if necessary by providing legal assistance to them.

Review petitions stood on a higher pedestal as these were heard by a Bench of not less than three judges, while the regular appeals were decided by two judges, the court noted.

Such petitions had assumed greater significance after a recent Constitution Bench ruling that there should be oral hearings in the open court at least for half-an-hour, unlike in the past when these were decided through circulation within the judges’ chambers.

Even after losing the case filed in the form of review petitions, they would be entitled to send mercy petitions to the Governor of the respective state and the President.

Only if they did not get any relief from the Governor or the President, the jail authorities could start the process for the execution by giving notice to them and their relatives should be given proper notice for the execution.

The Constitution had accorded great value of human beings and their right to life and this was evident from the legal provisions under which even the execution should be carried out through the least painful method, the Bench explained.

The Bench noted that the Amroha judge had issued the warrants of execution without even specifying the date and time for the hanging. Further, the warrants had been issued within a week of SC rejecting their appeals on May 15. They still had the right to seek a review of the SC verdict and appeal for mercy, if necessary at a later stage, it said.