Justice Katju: I Genuinely Believe SC Made Some Serious Mistakes In Soumya Case

Former Supreme Court judge Justice Markandey Katju today made it clear that he genuinely believed that the Supreme Court made some serious mistakes in adjudging the Soumya case.

In his new Facebook post, he wrote:

“Lord Denning, the celebrated British judge once said ‘The Judge has not been born who has not made a mistake’, and in Soumya's case, I genuinely believe that the Supreme Court made some serious mistakes in its judgment by reversing the death penalty awarded by the High Court, and I have given my reasons in my posts on fb and blog.

Possibly these mistakes were made because the Court is so overburdened with work that it cannot give as much time to cases as they deserve which they would have otherwise done, had it not been for this heavy load of cases to decide.

We are all humans, and all of us make mistakes, but a gentleman is one who realizes his mistake, acknowledges it, and seeks to make amends. This should apply to judges too”. 

SC Notice Not To Humiliate Me

He also wrote that the Supreme Court notice was not meant to humiliate him, and the court seemed sincere about its desire to reconsider the judgment and did not have a closed mind.

“In the Soumya case, when I heard for the first time that the Supreme Court had issued notice to me and asked me to appear before them and explain my views, I was upset because I thought the Court was trying to humiliate me since I had criticized their judgment, and such an order was unprecedented. So I had initially thought of not appearing before the Court on 11th November (the date fixed).
But when I received the notice of the Court and read it, I found that the court used very respectful language to me (part of which I have quoted in an earlier fb post), and had 'requested' me, not 'ordered' me, to appear, since they seemed to be sincere about their desire to reconsider their judgment, and did not have a closed mind.” 

Yesterday, Justice Katju, through his Facebook post, said he would appear before the Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi in Soumya rape and murder case.

“I will be appearing before the Supreme Court in the Soumya case on 11th November at 2 pm to explain why the judgment requires review, and the death sentence be imposed on the accused Govindachamy.” 

Last week, after the conclusion of hearing of arguments by the review petitioners in the Govindachamy case, the apex court had issued a notice to the former Supreme Court judge to appear in court in person, and participate in the proceedings on November 11 at 2 pm.

This article has been made possible because of financial support from Independent and Public-Spirited Media Foundation.