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SC asks Katju to appear in court to challenge judgment
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court asked its retired judge, Justice Markandey Katju, on Monday to appear personally in court and challenge a judgment after he assailed
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court asked its retired judge, Justice Markandey Katju, on Monday to appear personally in court and challenge a judgment after he assailed in his personal blog a verdict commuting the death sentence of a rape-murder convict to life.
This is the first time the top court has taken judicial note of a retired judge’s personal opinion.
A bench of justices Ranjan Gogoi, PC Pant and UU Lalit said Katju has been requested to participate in the proceedings on November 11.
His appearance is required to ascertain if the September 15 judgment on the rape-murder convict “suffers from any fundamental flaw so as to require exercise of the review jurisdiction”.
In his blog post on September 17, Justice Katju called the verdict a “grave error” not expected from “judges who had been in the legal world for decades”.
The court took cognizance of Justice Katju’s blog during the hearing of a Kerala government petition seeking a review of its decision in the Soumya rape-murder case.
Convict Gonvindaswamy’s sentence has been reduced to a life term because of lack of evidence. The victim’s mother too had urged the top court to review its judgment.
The bench did not “consider it appropriate” to reserve its verdict on the two petitions without hearing the retired judge.
“Such a view coming from a retired judge of this court needs to be treated with greatest respect and consideration,” the bench noted, converting the blog into a review petition.
It recorded the blog in the order.
In the blog, Justice Katju criticised the bench for believing “hearsay evidence” that Soumya jumped off a train, instead of being pushed out by Govindaswamy.
