In a singular argument, the Kerala government has filed a curative petition in the Supreme Court, claiming that the court’s annoyance at its own former judge, Justice Markandey Katju, spooked the State’s review petition challenging the commutation of death penalty of Govindachamy in the Soumya rape and murder case.
A six-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar will consider the curative plea arguing that the court was so “hurt” and “swayed” by Justice Katju’s critical comments on his 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.
‘State feels prejudiced’
“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 review [of the State] was heard and decided by a Bench of this court which had felt hurt by the criticism of many, including Hon’ble Justice Katju, that the judgment in the criminal appeal was erroneous,” the curative petition, filed by advocate Nishe Shonker for the State, contended.
“This court was swayed by the view expressed in the Facebook blog and the contention raised by the State, setting out the errors apparent on the face of record, have not been given due consideration,” the petition contended. In November 2016, Justice Katju had to appear in person before a Supreme Court Bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi , P.C. Pant and U.U. Lalit.
The court had invited him for an open-court “debate” on his Facebook post that there were “fundamental flaws” in the Bench's judgment sparing the life of the sole condemned man, Govindachamy, after acquitting him of murder.
The Bench had even put the review petitions of Soumya's mother and the State on hold till it cleared the air with Justice Katju. It had suo motu converted the Facebook post of the former judge into a review petition.
However, the November 11 hearing ended on a tumultuous note with the Bench slapping a contempt of court notice on its former judge, a first in the Supreme Court’s history. The Bench had further dismissed the review petitions of the State and the victim’s mother in the same hearing.
Besides Chief Justice Khehar, Justices Dipak Misra, J. Chelameswar, all three judges on the review Bench — Justices Gogoi, Pant and Lalit — will consider the curative petition on Thursday. Curative petition is a rare remedy entertained by the Supreme Court on ground of bias.
