SC to decide if review pleas can be heard in open court

The court has issued notices to the Centre and the Supreme Court Registry on a petition by G Sundarrajan alias Sunder,who has demanded appropriate amendments to the court rules for allowing hearing of review pleas of death row convicts in open court and also implementation of the Law Commission’s recommendation in this regard.

Denying him the “human condonation,” the court had in February confirmed his death penalty for killing a seven-year-old boy in Tamil Nadu for ransom. Highlighting several incriminating circumstances,the court had pointed out that the convict had killed the only male child of the parents and it would have caused “extreme misery” to them.

Sunder was convicted of killing Suresh,a class II student,after kidnapping him on his return from his school on July 27,2009. He had demanded a ransom of Rs 5 lakh. Three days later,the police recovered Suresh’s body,put in a gunny bag,from a water tank on a confession extracted from Sunder. A trial court in Cuddalore district awarded death penalty to Sunder and the High Court upheld it in August 2010.

Demanding a re-look at his case,he has pointed out that review pleas against death sentence qualified as a distinct category since life itself was at stake and the consequence of an error,which may be irreversible,was grave.

“The recommendation in the Law Commission report that all death penalty matters in the Supreme Court be heard by a bench of five judges be implemented and,in the alternative,at the least three judges ought to hear criminal appeals where capital punishment is involved,” stated his petition.