SC: Finality of death penalty important

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 23

Noting that finality of death penalty as extremely important, the Supreme Court on Thursday said a condemned prisoner should not be under impression that it was an open-ended question.

The comments from a three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde have come at a time when the Centre has requested it to fix a timeframe for filing and disposal of review, curative and mercy petitions in view of inordinate delay in execution of Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case convicts.

The Bench was hearing a petition filed by Shabnam and her lover Salim — convicted of killing her parents, two brothers and sister-in-law and strangling her 10-month-old nephew at Bawankhedi village in Hasanpur tehsil of Amroha district of UP on April 14, 2008. Her father Shaukat Ali, mother Hashmi, brothers Anees and Rashid, sister-in-law Anjum and cousin Rabia were all drugged by her before the duo killed them.

An Amroha sessions court had awarded death penalty to the duo in 2010 which was upheld by the Allahabad High Court. The Supreme Court had upheld their death sentence in 2015. They have sought review of the 2015 verdict.

A Bench of CJIBobde, Justice SA Nazeer and Justice Sanjiv Khanna reserved its verdict on their petition seeking review of the top court’s judgment upholding the death penalty awarded to them.

As senior advocates Anand Grover and Meenakshi Arora, representing the petitioners, submitted that the death penalty should be commuted to life term keeping in mind the possibility of their reformation, the Bench wondered if their “good behaviour” after the conviction could be considered.