In a mix-up, Supreme Court sends 4 persons to jail and frees 4 others

Apr 21, 2010, Wednesday, J. Venkatesan, The Hindu

New Delhi: In a rare instance, the Supreme Court in November 2008 committed a mistake by sending four persons to jail without hearing them.

Again, while recalling this order on a curative petition, it committed another mistake in March this year by wrongly releasing the four co-accused who were convicted after having been heard in appeals.

This was brought to the notice of the court on Tuesday during ‘mention' time before a Bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justices Deepak Verma and B.S. Chauhan.

After hearing counsel who said that those who were acquitted earlier and who surrendered in court after the Supreme Court verdict were still in jail, and those who had been convicted were released, the Chief Justice said: “If we have committed a mistake, we will correct it. We will hear the petition in the first week of May.”

In a murder case in Madhya Pradesh, the Shivpuri sessions judge had awarded life imprisonment to Sughar Singh, Laxman, Onkar, Ramesh, Bhoja, Raghubir, Puran and Balbir. On their appeals, the Madhya Pradesh High Court set aside the trial court verdict and acquitted all the eight accused.

The aggrieved State filed in the Supreme Court an appeal which was, however, confined to the first four persons, and the others were not impleaded as respondents.

On November 7, 2008, a Bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat, C.K. Thakker and L.S. Panta (all of them have since retired) reversed the order of acquittal and held the four respondents guilty and awarded them six-year imprisonment.

The other four, who were not made party in the appeal, were also found guilty without being heard, and sentenced to six-year imprisonment.

Curative petition

Shocked at this judgment, Raghubir, Sughar Singh and Laxman filed curative petitions (A curative petition is filed after the dismissal of a petition seeking review of the original judgment).

On March 9 this year, a Bench of four senior judges — Justices Balakrishnan, S.H. Kapadia, Altamas Kabir and R.V. Raveendran — in its order, said: “We see that there is a serious violation of principles of natural justice as the acquittal of all the accused has been set aside even though only four of them were made respondents before this court and the others were not heard. We, are therefore, constrained to recall the November 7, 2008 judgment. Consequently the accused Sughar Singh, Laxman, Onkar and Ramesh, if they are in custody, are directed to be released forthwith.”

Modification sought

In the present petitions, Bhoja, Puran, Balbir and Raghubir brought to the notice of the court that those who were ordered released were the respondents in the appeals who were heard. Instead of directing the releasing the present applicants, the court had wrongly released the other four.
They prayed for modification of the order and a direction for their immediate release.

http://www.thehindu.com/2010/04/21/stories/2010042154031300.htm