Vishal Yadav, serving life imprisonment in the Nitish Katara murder case, urged the Delhi High Court on Wednesday to either acquit him or order a retrial of the case as the trial was not conducted as per the prescribed procedure.
Appearing for the convict, noted advocate Ram Jethmalani submitted that the prosecution had not examined the witnesses and the trial judge had not conducted the trial of the case as per the prescribed procedure. He made the submission before a Division Bench comprising Justice Gital Mittal and Justice J.R. Midha, which is hearing the appeals by Vishal Yadav and Vikas Yadav against their conviction in the case by the trial court in 2008.
Mr. Jethmalani further said that the conviction of his client could not be sustained because the proceedings which ended in the verdict could not be called a trial in accordance with the prescribed procedure by law within the meaning of Article 21 of the Constitution.
He stated that the procedure laid down in the Criminal Procedure Code had been held to be the procedure prescribed by law within the meaning of the Constitution.
He further submitted that the case did not disclose just an erroneous decision or one or more debatable points of law but a wholesale violation of the Code, the Evidence Act and the elementary principles of the criminal justice system.
The inevitable consequence of his submission was acquittal or re-trial, Mr. Jethmalani submitted.
