The Supreme Court will make guidelines for the courts of the country on giving the death penalty. The court has taken suo moto cognizance of this serious issue. A bench of Justice U U Lalit, Justice S Ravindra Bhatt and Justice PS Narasimha have decided to take this step on the petition of a death row prisoner. The court was considering the plea of Irfan alias Bhaiyyu Mewati, challenging the death sentence. The trial court fixed the death sentence for Irfan and the Madhya Pradesh High Court has also confirmed it. A three-judge bench, during the ongoing proceedings on the same petition, said that this guideline is necessary for deciding the strictest punishment in the offenses deserving of death. The court will prepare it soon.
The bench also asked Attorney General KK Venugopal to help with this and has issued notice to the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA). The bench said that now the time has come that rules should be made regarding the death sentence, that is, it should be institutionalized because the convict who is convicted has very little means to defend himself.
During the hearing, Parameshwara of Amicus Curie Senior Advocate said that in many states, promotion is given to the Public Prosecutor on the basis of how many cases he gave punishment, that too the death penalty. He cited Madhya Pradesh. The Supreme Court said that this policy should be filed in the Supreme Court, after which the court took cognizance of it, and now the matter will be heard on May 10.
