Staying the execution of Suresh, Ramji, Gurmeet Singh, Praveen Kumar, Sonia and her husband Sanjeev, Sundar Singh and Jafar Ali for four weeks, a two-judge bench during an urgent hearing held late yesterday evening expressed concern that a situation like the Jammu and Kashmir incident should not arise.
Though they did not refer to the Afzal Guru case, a bench comprising justices P Sathasivam and M Y Eqbal said the intimation of the execution reached the relatives of the person after his hanging and they could not meet the condemned prisoner for one last time before he was hanged.
The bench, which had its hearing at Justice Sathasivam's residence, said, "There shall be stay of execution of the death sentence in respect of the eight petitioners. Notice to the states concerned returnable in four weeks."
The bench passed the order on the petitions filed by relatives of death row convicts and a civil rights group People's Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR).
The urgent hearing took place as the petitioners feared they would be executed following the rejection of their mercy petitions by the President.