By IANS,
New Delhi: The Supreme Court Tuesday gave a ray of hope to four people languishing in jail allegedly due to a queer judicial error when it offered to correct “mistakes”, if committed by it, in a murder-cum-riot case from Madhya Pradesh.
“We will correct them if there are some mistakes,” remarked a bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice Deepak Verma Tuesday as the jailed people’s counsel Aftab Ali Khan explained how a judicial error has left them languishing in jail since November 2009.
The bench decided to hear their lawsuit, pointing towards the alleged judicial errors committed by the court, in the first week of May.
The alleged judicial errors were committed in November 2008, when a three-judge bench of Justice Arijit Pasayat reversed the acquittal of four Madhya Pradesh natives in the murder-cum-riot case and sent them to jail without hearing them, said Khan in his lawsuit.
Bhoja, Puran, Balveer and Raghubir, all residents of Negma village of Shivpuri district in Madhya Pradesh, were originally convicted by a Shivpuri trial court in October 1991 in a murder-cum-riot case along with four other villagers – Sugar Singh, Laxman, Onkar and Ramesh.
The eight subsequently went in appeal to the Gwalior bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, which acquitted them all in January 2003.
Later, the state government moved the Supreme Court challenging the acquittal of Sugar Singh, Laxman, Onkar and Ramesh of murder charges.
But a three judge-bench of Supreme Court, headed by Justice Pasayat, in November 2008, restored the conviction of all eight, even without hearing Bhoja, Puran, Balveer and Raghubir.
They could not get an opportunity to defend themselves simply because the state government had not challenged their acquittal and they were not issued notice to appear in the apex court, Khan told the court Tuesday.
The bench headed by Justice Pasayat convicted them on charges of rioting and culpable homicide not amounting to murder – an offence less heinous than murder, and restored the 6-year sentence imposed on them by the Shivpuri sessions court in 1991, said Khan.
The counsel told the court that the four – Bhoja, Puran, Balveer and Raghubir – bowing to the apex court’s order surrendered before a court in Shivpuri and were taken into custody in November 2009.
They subsequently moved the apex court seeking review of its order, but their pleas were summarily dismissed.
The four moved the apex court yet again through a curative petition – a litigant’s last resort for rectification of judicial wrongs.
The curative petition was heard by a four-judge bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justice S.H. Kapadia, Justice Altmas Kabir and Justice R.V. Raveendran.
The bench decided the curative petition on March 9, 2010 and realizing the error committed by the bench headed by Justice Pasayat, recalled its November 2008 order which resulted in Bhoja, Puran, Balveer and Raghubir landing in jail.
But while recalling the order of the bench headed by Justice Pasayat, the four-judge bench of the apex court erroneously asked the state government to file a fresh appeal against the acquittal of all the eight accused by the high court, argued Khan.
He contended that it’s the state which decides whose acquittal is to be challenged. The law does not provide for the courts to direct the state government to challenge the acquittal of one or all accused in the case.
Khan further pointed to the court that while deciding the curative petition filed by Bhoja, Puran, Balveer and Raghubir, the court erroneously ordered release of the other four accused – Sugar Singh, Laxman, Onkar and Ramesh – against whose acquittal the state had come to the apex court.
This has left Bhoja, Puran, Balveer and Raghubir still languishing in jail, pointed out Khan.