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1h ago

Supreme Court Invokes Article 32 to Reopen Dupare Death Sentence for Fresh Hearing

The ruling prioritizes procedural fairness in capital sentencing to enforce the safeguards introduced in 2022.

The Supreme Court held that the petition under Article 32 may look into the correctness of the sentence by examining whether the convict deserves a lesser punishment in the light of mitigating circumstances, which could include a psychological evaluation (HT)

Overview

  • The three-judge bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sanjay Karol and Sandeep Mehta set aside the court’s 2017 order on sentencing, while leaving the conviction intact.
  • The case has been placed before the Chief Justice of India to assign a bench for a fresh hearing confined to punishment in line with the Manoj (2022) framework.
  • The court held that Article 32 empowers it to reopen the sentencing stage where mandatory safeguards were breached, but stressed this remedy is reserved for exceptional, grave violations affecting the right to life.
  • Under Manoj, courts must obtain comprehensive psychological, psychiatric and social evaluation reports and conduct individualized sentencing before imposing the death penalty.
  • Dupare’s review was rejected in 2017 and his mercy pleas to the Governor and President were denied in 2022 and 2023, and today’s order may create a limited avenue for other pre-2022 death row convicts to seek rehearings where safeguards were not observed.