Death penalty can’t be open-ended, says CJI

NEWDELHI: Chief Justice of India SA Bobde on Thursday commented on the practice of deathrow convicts filing petitions to delay their executions and stressed that courts should focus not only on the rights of the accused but also of the victims.

CJI Bobde’s remarks are significant, especially because they come a day after the central government approached the Supreme Court seeking a direction on timelines and process for death-row convicts to use curative and mercy petitions. The Centre’s petition was filed against the backdrop of seemingly needless delays in the execution of the four death-row convicts in the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder case.

The CJI’S comments came while his court was hearing review petitions filed by two convicts, Saleem and Shabnam from Uttar Pradesh who have been sentenced to death for killing seven members of Shabnam’s family.

“We don’t want to place emphasis only on the life and death of the accused. When seven people have been killed including a 10-month old baby, the only focus can’t be on the

rights of the accused,” he said.

The central government’s plea urged the court to adopt a victim-centric approach in heinous crimes and set a deadline for filing curative petitions and mercy petitions.

The application by the Centre seeks modifications and clarifications in furtherance of a 2014 judgment of the top court in the Shatrughan Chauhan vs Union of India case which laid down guidelines for safeguarding the interests of death-row convicts.

The two convicts, Shabnam and Saleem, were sentenced to death for sedating seven members of Shabnam’s family and hacking them to death in April 2008 after they had objected to her relationship with Saleem.

A 10-month-old baby was among the seven people murdered. The duo was arrested within five days and sentenced to death by a trial court in 2010. The conviction and sentence were confirmed by the Allahabad high court in April 2013 and the Supreme Court on May 15, 2015. The sessions judge then moved to issue a death warrant on May 21, 2015, barely a week after the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal.

The convicts then filed a writ petition before the Supreme Court which was heard on May 27 by a vacation bench which quashed the death warrant issued by the sessions judge noting that the convicts had not yet availed their remedies to file review and mercy petitions.