A Constitution bench of Supreme Court of India by 4:1
majority ruled in Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 77 of 2014 on 2nd September 2014 that condemned
prisoners should be given, as part of Article 21 of Constitution of India,
limited oral hearing for max 30 min in open court to rule out any injustice.
Hearing on Review application is otherwise generally held by judges in chamber.
The court observed that "Death penalty is irreversible in nature. Once a
death sentence is executed, that results in taking away the life of the
convict. If it is found thereafter that such a sentence was not warranted, that
would be of no use as the life of that person cannot be brought back."
The court however also held that years spent behind bars
during prolonged judicial proceedings cannot be a ground for converting death
sentence to life imprisonment. This judgment was pronounced by Supreme Court on
2 September 2014 on the petition of Mohd Ashfaq, in jail for 13 years, who
petitioned the court to convert his death sentence to life imprisonment on the
ground of delay on hearing in his matter.
Click below to read the Full text of the Judgment
