The Supreme Court today said it will examine the challenge to its rule which allows summary dismissal of appeals in death row cases and whether the convicts can approach it after exhausting all legal remedies.
The apex court directed death row convict Babu alias Ketan and another seeking a stay on their hanging to first file a review petition against their sentence of capital punishment, after which the larger issue will be decided.
A bench headed by Justices Dipak Misra and comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and M M Shantanagoudar said it was keeping the petition pending till the disposal of the review petition.
Senior advocate Gopal Subramanium said the larger issue that has been challenged was the Supreme Court rules which allow summary dismissal of appeals of death row convicts.
The apex court had on June 22 posted the matter for hearing by a three-judge bench to decide whether death row convicts can approach it again, challenging their proposed hanging even after exhausting all the legal remedies.
Mercy petitions of Babu alias Ketan have already been rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee on May 25.
Babu alias Ketan and Sanni alias Devendra were awarded death sentence along with another person by a Indore court in Madhya Pradesh for rape and murder of a four-year-old girl in 2012. The sentence was upheld by the Madhya Pradesh High Court in 2014 and by the apex court on January 6, 2015.
The convicts had kidnapped the child from outside her relative's house in Indore, sexually assaulted her, then strangled her to death and dumped the body in a drain.
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