The Supreme Court on Wednesday held that <g data-gr-id="13">right</g> to life does not end with the confirmation of death sentence, observing that the basis to the right to dignity also extends to the death row convicts.
The Apex Court said this while it quashed the execution warrants of a woman and her lover, convicted for killing seven members of her family including a 10-month-old baby in UP in 2008, noting that it was issued “in haste” by giving a go-by to mandatory guidelines.
The court said the Sessions Judge of Amroha issued the warrants for execution of death sentence on May 21 “in haste”, just six days after confirmation of conviction and capital punishment, without waiting for mandatory 30 days to allow the convicts to avail judicial remedy of filing petitions for a review of the May 15 judgement.
The convicts, Shabnam and her lover Saleem, could also approach the UP Governor with mercy petitions after exhausting the legal remedies, it noted.
“We find that the death warrant was signed by the Sessions Judge in haste without waiting for the convicts to exhaust the available legal remedies,” a Bench comprising Justices AK Sikri and UU Lait said.