Breaking: Supreme Court to hear sentencing of Nirbhaya convicts afresh [Read order]

In a major development in the 2012 Nirbhaya case, the Supreme Court today accepted Amicus Curiae Raju Ramachandran’s submissions that there has been violation of procedure with regard to the sentencing of the four convicts..A Bench of Justices Dipak Misra, R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan today decided that it would hear afresh the matter with regard to sentencing of the four convicts..The Court implicitly accepted Ramachandran’s submissions that the mandate under Section 235 of the Code of Criminal Procedure was not followed by the trial court and the Delhi High Court..It then proceeded to record that there are two “modes” to deal with the matter: remand the case back to trial court or allow the accused to produce necessary data and advance submissions on sentencing..The court chose the second mode stating,.“Having considered all the authorities, we find that there are two modes, one is to remand the matter or to direct the accused persons to produce necessary data and advance the contention on the question of sentence. Regard being had to the nature of the case, we think it appropriate to adopt the second mode. To elaborate, we would like to give opportunity before conclusion of the hearing to the accused persons to file affidavits along with documents stating about the mitigating circumstances.”.The court also allowed advocates ML Sharma and AP Singh to visit the convicts in the jail and apprise them about the order so as to enable the accused to file affidavits setting out mitigating circumstances..“Needless to say, for the said purpose, it is necessary that the learned counsel, Mr. M.L. Sharma and his associate Ms. Suman and Mr. A.P. Singh and his associate Mr. V.P. Singh should be allowed to visit the jail and communicate with the accused persons and file the requisite affidavits and materials.”.The accused are required to file their affidavits by February 23..Meanwhile, the hearing on the conviction aspect will continue and is likely to conclude tomorrow..The date for rehearing sentencing aspect of the case will be decided on February 6..Image of Justice Misra taken from here.