Death Sentence Awarded In A 13 Day Trial: SC Reserves Order In Appeal By Rape & Murder Accused [Read Order]

The Supreme Court has reserved the order in an appeal against death penalty awarded to a rape and murder accused in a trial that finished within thirteen days.

Anokhilal was convicted and sentenced to death in March 2013 for committing the murder of a minor girl, aged nine years, after raping and performing carnal sex with her. The entire trial finished within thirteen days. The Madhya Pradesh High Court upheld the death penalty in June 2013.

In the appeal filed by the convict before the Apex Court, appearing on behalf of the accused, for Supreme Court Legal Services Committee, Senior Advocate Sidharth Luthra, submitted that the Amicus Curiae appointed by the Trial Court to defend the accused did not have sufficient opportunity to study the matter nor did he have any opportunity to have any interaction with the accused to seek appropriate instruction. It was also contended that no report was obtained from any Probation Officer who could have given valuable inputs as to whether the case called for any leniency on any count.

Another issue that arose in this case was in relation to the statutory time-frame fixed by proviso to Section 309(1)of the Cr.P.C.(as amended in 2018) which provides a time limit of 60 days within which the trial is supposed to be completed. The court said that it would explore the possibility of using video-conferencing for the purpose of recording evidence since it is believed that such use will eliminate the time taken for summoning the witnesses to Court. It would also deal with an apprehension that the video-conferencing facility is not always available throughout the trial in various parts of the country and in the present state of the art, it cannot be wholly relied on.

Reserving the appeal for orders, the bench comprising Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, Justice Indu Malhotra and Justice Krishna Murari said:

"As presently advised, we will deal first with the issue pertaining to the present trial and whether the approach adopted by the Trial Court in the present matter could be accepted or whether there was any infraction or error on the part of the Trial Court in adopting the approach in the present matter. Other issues, namely applicability of Section 309 and advisability of having videoconferencing in the matter will be dealt with at a later stage and the consideration of these two issues, for the time being, is deferred." 

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