A six-judge Bench of the Supreme Court dismissed a curative petition filed by Kerala government on the commutation of the death penalty of Govindachamy, the sole accused in the 2011 rape and murder of Saumya.
Govindachamy, who was sentenced to death for the murder of 23-year-old Saumya, escaped the noose when the Supreme Court found no clinching evidence to prove he had intended to kill her. However, the court found enough evidence to prove that he had raped her in the "most brutal and grotesque” manner and upheld the lower courts' decision to put him behind bars for life.
The curative petition was dismissed by a Bench of Chief Justice J.S. Khehar, Justices J. Chelameswar, Dipak Misra, Ranjan Gogoi, P.C. Pant and U.U. Lalit via circulation. The Bench found that no case was made out in the State's curative petition warranting the rare possibility of the Supreme Court re-considering its original judgment.
In its curative petition, the State said the court was so “hurt” and “swayed” by former SC judge Justice Markandeya Katju’s critical comments in his Facebook blog that it ended up prejudicing the State’s efforts for a review in a death penalty case. In a way, the State became the unwitting victim of the battle of wits between the Supreme Court and Justice Katju.
“The State feels greatly prejudiced by the course of events which culminated in the issuance of notice for contempt to Hon’ble Justice Katju the curative petition, filed by advocate Nishe Shonker for the State, had contended.
