iv. The Sessions Court shall endeavour to follow the following guidelines:
a. As soon as the order of the High Court confirming or imposing the death sentence is received by the Sessions Court, a note thereof must be taken, and the disposed of case shall be listed on the cause list. The proceedings can be numbered as Misc. Application depending upon the applicable Rules of the procedure. The Sessions Court shall immediately issue notice to the State Public Prosecutor or the investigating agency calling upon them to state whether any appeal or special leave petition has been preferred before this Court and what is the outcome of the said petition/appeal;
b. If the State Public Prosecutor or the investigating agency reports that the appeal is pending, as soon as the order of this Court confirming or restoring the death sentence is received by the Sessions Court, again, the disposed of case or miscellaneous applications should be listed on the cause list and notice be issued to the State Public Prosecutor or the investigating agency to ascertain whether any review/curative petitions or mercy petitions are pending. If information is received regarding the pendency of review/curative petitions or mercy petitions, the Sessions Court shall keep on listing the disposed of case after intervals of one month so that it gets the information about the status of the pending petitions. This will enable the Sessions Court to issue a warrant for the execution of the death sentence as soon as all the proceedings culminate;
c. However, before issuing the warrant, notice should be issued to the convict, and the directions issued by the Allahabad High Court in the case of People's Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) MANU/UP/0242/2015, and as elaborated above, shall be implemented by the Sessions Court;
d. The Sessions Courts shall consider what is held in Paragraph 25 above;
25. The proceedings for issuing a warrant for executing a death sentence Under Sections 413 and 414 of the Code of Criminal Procedure do not require any judicial adjudication. Before issuing the warrant, the Sessions Court must satisfy itself that the order of death sentence has attained finality and the review/curative or mercy petitions, if filed, have been finally rejected. Before issuing a warrant, the Sessions Court has to issue notice to the convict so that even the convict can state whether any other proceedings are pending before the Courts or Constitutional authorities. In a given case, the convict may not be interested in pursuing remedies. The Sessions Court can verify this aspect after issuing a notice to the convict. The Sessions Court, in such a case, must appraise the convict of the remedies available and, if required, provide legal aid to enable the convict to take recourse to such remedies. After the convict has been made aware of the remedies available, reasonable time be granted to the convict to consider, weigh and even consult a member of his family or friend to finally take a decision on adopting remedies as the possibility of thinking logically and rationally may be impeded or hampered because of the situation being faced by the convict. The Sessions Court can issue a warrant only after providing such reasonable time to the convict and after satisfying itself that the convict has taken a conscious decision of not pursuing the available remedies. The reasonable time can be of seven days. The Sessions Court can direct the counselling of the convict if it is not satisfied that the decision is a well-informed, considered and conscious decision. If such a procedure is followed, it enables the convict to take recourse to the available legal remedy. Moreover, if an order of issue of warrant of execution is passed after notice to the convict, it enables the convict to challenge the order of issuing a warrant of execution. But after the convict exhausts all remedies, including filing mercy petitions or after the Sessions Court is satisfied that the convict has taken a conscious decision of not availing the remedies, the execution warrant must be issued without any delay. It is the responsibility of the trial court to take up and conclude the proceedings of issuing a warrant of execution as expeditiously as possible. The trial court must give necessary out of turn priority.
26. After the decisions on mercy petitions, if there is an inordinate and unexplained delay in actual execution for no fault on the part of the convict, there is no reason why the principles set out in paragraph 23 should not apply. The principles will also apply to a case where there is a long and unexplained delay on the part of the Sessions Court in issuing the warrant of execution in accordance with Sections 413 and 414 of Code of Criminal Procedure.
Criminal Appeal Nos. 2831 of 2023 and 2832 of 2023
Decided On: 09.12.2024
State of Maharashtra and Ors. Vs. Pradeep Yashwant Kokade and Ors.
Hon'ble Judges/Coram:
Abhay Shreeniwas Oka, Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Augustine George Masih, JJ.
Author: Abhay Shreeniwas Oka, J.
Citation: MANU/SC/1305/2024.
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