Death row convict's review petition to be heard by 3-judge bench: SC

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday held that in the cases where the death sentence has been upheld by the apex court, the death convict will have a right that his petition seeking review of the verdict upholding death sentence will be heard by the three judges bench in an open court and he will be accorded half an hour hearing.

The apex court constitution bench headed by Chief Justice RM Lodha said that in the review petition that have already been decided and rejected, but the death sentence has not been carried out, the convict may come back seeking the open court hearing of a review petition by a three judges bench and he getting half an hour to address the court.

However, in the cases, where the curative petition has already been decided, the death row convict will not have this opportunity to avail. The constitution bench verdict came on a batch of petitions seeking that their plea for the recall of verdict upholding their death sentence should be heard in the open court by a three judges bench.

While four judges including Chief Justice R M Lodha favoured open court hearing of review petition, one judge Justice J Chelameswar gave a dissenting verdict.

The apex court passed the order on a batch of petitions filed by six death convicts including Red Fort attack case convict Mohammed Arif and 1993 Mumbai serial blast convict Yakub Abdul Razak Memon pleading the court that their review pleas should have been decided in open court hearing.

Earlier, in most cases, review petitions were decided in judges’ chambers and the parties were not allowed to be present. Other death convicts who filed the petitions are C Muniappan, B A Umesh, Sundar and Sonu Sardar.

As of now the review plea of death row convicts were being considered by the judges in their chambers through circulation.

IANS and PTI