SC extends Vikas Yadav’s bail by a week in Nitish Katara case

The Supreme Court extended Vikas Yadav's interim bail for a week; he seeks bail for marriage while serving a 25-year sentence for Nitish Katara's murder.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended the interim bail of Vikas Yadav — convict in Nitish Katara murder case — by a week.

Yadav has completed 23 years of his sentence. (HT Photo)

Yadav, son of former Parliamentarian DP Yadav, is undergoing a 25-year fixed sentence without remission for murder of Nitish Katara in 2002, when Katara was was involved in a relationship with Yadav’s sister Bharti.

Yadav had approached the top court against an August 22 order of the Delhi High Court which refused to grant an extension of his interim bail granted by the top court on July 29. He sought extension of bail on account of getting married on September 5. However, the high court doubted whether it had power to extend the SC’s interim bail and posted his matter for further hearing on September 2.

Taking up his appeal, a bench of justices Dipankar Datta and AG Masih prima facie agreed with the view taken by the high court and noted that the matter should ideally be heard by the same bench who passed the July 29 order.

“If any relief is to be granted, it has to be by the Supreme Court…high court seems prima facie justified that once this court has affirmed the decision that he (Yadav) will not be entitled to remission, it would not have jurisdiction,” the bench said.

As the bail was expiring on Tuesday, the bench extended it by a week.

Senior advocate S Gurukrishna Kumar, appearing for Yadav, told the court that he even filed a writ petition challenging the Supreme Court judgment in October 2016, wherein his conviction was upheld with a rider on his life term sentence that he will undergo 25 years of sentence without remission. This writ petition was dismissed by the top court on July 29 claiming that the issue cannot be decided under Article 32. The same order allowed Yadav to raise this question in the high court.

On Tuesday, the top court seemed to disagree with this view. It said, “The high court cannot go beyond the Supreme Court order. So far as SC is concerned, the appeal has been dismissed in October 2016 and your review petition has also been dismissed. Even under Article 32, we cannot touch this order.”

The court told Yadav’s lawyer that it was not open for his client to file a writ petition. “After review being dismissed, you should have filed a curative petition. You filed a petition under Article 32. You created your own problem.”

When Kumar said that these observations would prejudice his petition before the high court, the bench responded, “Why burden the high courts with this problem. Do not expect the high courts to violate the law.”

Yadav, 54, has completed 23 years of his sentence and had told the Delhi High Court that he required bail for his marriage and to arrange the fine amount of ₹54 lakh which was imposed on him at the time of sentencing.

The high court bench of justice Ravinder Dudeja had issued notice to Centre and the Delhi government along with Nitish Katara’s mother Nilam Katara on his plea, posting it for hearing on September 2.

Nilam Katara, who opposed Yadav’s bail in the high court had argued that there is no provision for interim bail to a convict. Her lawyer argued that convicts may seek parole or furlough, while interim bail is outside the statutory framework.

The Supreme Court had recently released Sukhdev Yadav - one of the convicts in the murder - after he completed his 20 years fixed sentence without any remission. Besides Vikas, the other convicts are his cousin Vishal and Sukhdev Yadav.