New Delhi: The Supreme Court today stayed the
execution of the death sentence of a person convicted for
rape and murder of a widow in Bangalore 12 years ago after the
convict B A Umesh pleaded that his review petition should be
heard in an open court.
A bench of justices justices Altamas Kabir and A K Pathak
had on February 1 upheld the death sentence on the ground that
it fell within the category of rarest of rare cases,
warranting death penalty.
However, today, Kiran Suri and Gudutta Ankolekar, the
counsel for the convict, through a fresh writ petition, sought
a stay of the death sentence execution on the ground that his
review petition was already pending before the apex court.
The counsel, in their writ petition, pleaded that all
review petitions filed in death sentence cases be heard in an
open court with oral arguments, and if necessary, Order XL,
Rule 2 of the Supreme Court Rules, 1966, be amended to bring
about that change. Under that rule, review petitions are now
heard in the judges chambers.
The bench of justices B Sudershan Reddy and S S Nijjar,
before whom the matter was mentioned, stayed the execution
while issuing a notice to Karnataka government.
PTI
