The Supreme Court on Friday delivered a verdict in a 42-year-old double murder case from Delhi, after keeping the judgment reserved for 15 months. This came on the same day the apex court issued mandatory guidelines for high courts to pronounce judgments within three months of reserving them.
Case Background
In July 1984, two bodies were discovered within three days at Civil Lines and Alipur in Delhi. The victims were identified as the driver and helper of a truck. Delhi Police arrested suspects within a fortnight, accusing them of murdering the driver and helper to steal the truck.
The trials for the two cases, lodged at separate police stations, were clubbed together only in 2008. A sessions court convicted the accused of murder and awarded life imprisonment in 2009. The Delhi High Court dismissed their appeals in 2013. One of the convicts, Gopi Chand alias Pappu, appealed against the conviction and life term before the Supreme Court in 2013.
Supreme Court Proceedings
A bench of Justices P S Narasimha and Manoj Misra heard final arguments on February 27 last year and reserved the verdict. The judgment remained pending with Justice Misra for 15 months.
Delivering the judgment on Friday, Justice Manoj Misra stated that the prosecution had successfully established that five persons conspired to steal the truck by hiring it and then murdering the driver and helper. The bench upheld the conviction. However, it commuted the life sentence to 18 years of jail term already served by the convict.
Other Delays by Justice Misra
On April 12, TOI reported that Justice Misra had delivered verdicts in two other cases after reserving judgment for 17 and 11 months. In another case, he delivered a verdict in February this year after keeping it reserved for 14 months.
Supreme Court Guidelines
On Friday, a bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant fixed a timeline for expeditious pronouncement of reserved verdicts by high courts. The CJI stated, "The right to life and personal liberty guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution is not confined to the expeditious conduct of a trial."
