New Delhi: The Supreme Court yesterday stayed the execution of December 2000 Red Fort terror shootout convict Mohamed Arif’s death sentence on a plea that he has already undergone life sentence of nearly 14 years and could not be punished twice and referred the matter to a constitution bench.
Counsel Tripurari Ray, appearing for Arif, said that carrying out the death sentence of Arif after he has already completed 13 years, four month imprisonment would be violative of Article 20 (1) of the constitution.
Ray told the court that under the provision, a convict could not be subjected to a punishment that is greater than which might have been inflicted under the law in force at the time of the commission of the offence.
Referring the matter, a bench of Chief Justice R M Lodha, Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Kurian Joseph said that the matter be heard early.
As Chief Justice Lodha said that by an earlier pronouncement of the apex court, the law on delay in execution has already been laid, Ray told the court that Arif has not filed any mercy petition.
So his case, Ray said, was not covered under pronouncement of the court that inordinate, unexplained, and unjustified delay in deciding the mercy petitions was a ground for seeking commutation of death sentence into life imprisonment.
Arif was arrested on December 25, 2000. He was convicted by the trial court on October 24, 2005 and awarded death sentence on October 31, 2005. IANS
