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Time of India
6 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Six death-row convicts await HC verdict for over 3 yrs
6 death-row convicts await J'khand high court verdict for over 3 years. HC reserved verdicts in early 2022, yet to pronounce. NEW DELHI: In an unprecedented judicial inaction causing anxiety and uncertainty to those under the shadow of death sentence, the Jharkhand high court had reserved verdicts more than three years ago on appeals filed by six death-row convicts challenging their convictions and capital sentences and is yet to pronounce verdicts. Arguing their appeals filed in the supreme court through its legal services committee against non-pronouncement of judgments for years, advocate Fauzia Shakil told a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi that it is a serious infraction of the right to speedy justice. Justice Kant asked whether these judgments were reserved by the same Judge who was called out by the apex court on an earlier occasion for similar inaction in delivering judgments. Shakil answered in the affirmative and said though these are 10 judgments which are reserved for a long time, the status report submitted by the HC on delayed pronouncement of verdicts to the SC did not reflect eight of them. Interestingly, in all these 10 appeals – six of whom have been awarded death sentence and rest life terms in murder cases – justice Rongon Mukhopadhyay is the presiding judge of the benches which heard and reserved verdicts in nine cases between Jan 2022 and Aug 2022 and in one in Aug 2023. The death-row convicts are Nitesh Sahu (judgment on appeal reserved on Aug 28, 2022), Sanatan Baski (Feb 3, 2022), Sukhlal Murmu (Feb 3, 2022), Gandhi Oraon (Jan 10, 2022), Rohit Rai (Jan 25, 2022) and Bandhan Oran (Jan 13, 2022). Earlier a similar inaction by the HC in pronouncing judgments in four cases of lifers was brought to the notice of the SC through Shakil and a bench led by Justice Kant had sought a status report from the HC about such cases being kept in limbo. Within a week of the SC entertaining the four cases, the HC had pronounced the verdicts which were reserved for years. Three were acquitted and in one there was a split verdict entitling the accused bail. Shakil informed the apex court that among the present 10 petitioners have been convicted and sentenced to death or life imprisonment. 'It is pertinent to note that each one of them has served an actual custody period ranging between over 6 years to over 16 years,' she said. The petitioners pointed out that non-pronouncement of judgments by the HC for more than three years breached the Jharkhand HC Rules, 2001, which provided that 'Reserved judgments should ordinarily be pronounced within six weeks of the conclusion of the arguments. In the event of the judgments not being pronounced within three months of the conclusion of the arguments, the chief justice may either post the case for delivering judgment in open Court or withdraw the case and post it for disposal before an appropriate Bench. '
Hindustan Times
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
RJD, TMC MPs move SC against revision of electoral rolls in Bihar
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Manoj Jha has approached the Supreme Court alleging that the decision of Election Commission of India (ECI) to undertake a special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar is a tool of 'institutionalised disenfranchisement' that will disproportionately target Muslim, Dalit and poor migrant communities in a state where elections are to be held later this year. Jha filed the petition through advocate Fauzia Shakil (HT Photo) The challenge forms the latest in the line of several petitions filed in the top court challenging the ECI's June 24 order. After non government organisation Association for Democratic Association (ADR) and political activist Yogendra Yadav filed petitions on Saturday, pleas have also been filed by Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra and NGO Peoples Union for Civil Liberties, besides Jha. RJD, the second largest party in Bihar and the main Opposition party in the state, has opposed the SIR along with other Opposition parties. Jha in his petition filed through advocate Fauzia Shakil said, 'The present SIR process is not only hasty and ill-timed, but has the effect of disenfranchising crores of voters, thereby robbing them of their constitutional right to vote.' He added, 'It (ECI order) is being used to justify aggressive and opaque revisions of electoral rolls that disproportionately target Muslim, Dalit and poor migrant communities, as such, they are not random patterns but it is engineered exclusions.' Moreover, since the exercise has been launched during the monsoon season in the state when many districts are affected by floods and displacement of local population, the petition questioned the meaningful participation of a large section of population. The schedule under the June 24 order requires submission of enumeration form within 30 days, followed by filing of claims and objections and their disposal within 30 days. 'It is a settled law that the burden of proving citizenship of a person lies with the state and not the person concerned. After the initiation of the present SIR process, an overwhelming majority (about 4.74 crore out of 7.9 crore on the current electoral roll) carry a disproportionately high burden of proving their citizenship with the help of proofs of date and place of birth.' As per ECI data, Bihar has 7,89,69,844 registered voters enrolled as on June 24, 2025. The state accounts for 30% of the national per capita income as per 2021-22 and is home to the highest number of migrant workers with over 9.3 million population migrating between 2001 and 2011. 'One of the most affected classes (of the SIR exercise) are the migrant workers, many of whom despite remaining listed in the 2003 voter rolls, are unlikely to be able to return to Bihar within the stipulated time frame of 30 days to submit their enumeration forms leading to automatic deletion of their names from the electoral roll,' said the Rajya Sabha MP from Bihar. Besides terming the ECI's decision to be unconstitutional, Jha claimed that it is violative of Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. The SIR order and the subsequent press release empowers the electoral registration officers or such other officers to initiate a suo motu inquiry, issue notice to the proposed elector, and decide upon their inclusion in the final electoral roll, even as Rule 13(2) permits filing of claims and objections only at the instance of the affected person. 'The short deadlines make the whole process unreasonable and unworkable and has the effect of bypassing the procedure of conduct of inquiry into claims and objections as contemplated under the Rules,' the petition stated. The petition filed by Moitra has raised similar grounds to set aside the ECI's SIR exercise. In her petition filed through advocate Neha Rathi, the TMC MP sought a direction from the court 'to restrain ECI from issuing similar orders for SIR of electoral roll in other states of the country, particularly West Bengal. Moitra claimed to have information that after Bihar, the SIT is to be replicated in West Bengal from August 2025. She further claimed the ECI order to be 'illegal' as it presumes ineligibility of a voter unless otherwise proved by way of providing documents (from a limited list of 11 documents) for self as well as documents of mother or father or both, while excluding readily available documents such as Aadhaar card, ration card, election photo identity card, or MNREGA job card. The SIR resembles the structure and consequences of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), Moitra said, as the consequence of non-submission of documents will result in automatic exclusion from the electoral roll, without adequate procedural protection. The petitions filed so far have unanimously critiqued the ECI's decision to undertake SIR despite conducting a Special Summary Revision (SSR) between October 2024 and January 2025 in the state when the necessary weeding out of names based on death, migration, etc was carried out. 'ECIs decision to conduct a second revision in such a draconian manner in a poll-bound state is unjustified and unreasonable,' Moitra said. ADR, in its petition filed on Saturday had said that the SIR violates fundamental rights under Articles 14, 19 and 21, besides other provisions of the Constitution. It said, 'The SIR order if not set aside, can arbitrarily and without due process disenfranchise lakhs of voters from electing their representatives, thereby disrupting free and fair elections and democracy in the country, which are part of basic structure of the Constitution.'
Deccan Herald
06-07-2025
- Politics
- Deccan Herald
RJD moves SC against EC's revision of electoral rolls in Bihar
In his plea filed through advocate Fauzia Shakil, Manoj Jha said EC's June 24 order be quashed for being violative of Articles 14, 21, 325 and 326 of the Constitution of India.
The Print
06-07-2025
- Politics
- The Print
RJD moves SC against EC's revision of electoral rolls in Bihar
In his plea filed through advocate Fauzia Shakil, Jha said EC's June 24 order be quashed for being violative of Articles 14, 21, 325 and 326 of the Constitution of India. Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra has also approached the apex court against the EC's order. New Delhi, Jul 6 (PTI) Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Manoj Jha has moved the Supreme Court challenging an Election Commission's order directing for special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar. The Rajya Sabha MP said that the impugned order is a tool of institutionalized disenfranchisement and 'it is being used to justify aggressive and opaque revisions of electoral rolls that disproportionately target Muslim, Dalit and poor migrant communities, as such, they are not random patterns but it is engineered exclusions.' He also sought direction to the poll body to hold the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections on the basis of the existing electoral rolls. The assembly polls in the state is due later this year. Jha said alternatively a direction be issued directing the poll authority to accept 'all the documents stipulated in Form 6 as documents in support of the declaration along with the Enumeration Form and Declaration Form (Annexure C and D enclosed with the Impugned Order dated 24-06-2025)'. 'The present petition is being filed under Article 32 of the Constitution of India inter alia seeking issuance of a writ, order or direction in the nature of certiorari or any other writ quashing and setting the order dated June 24, 2025 issued by respondent No.1 along with its subsequent clarificatory press note dated June 30, 2025, the same being violative of Articles 14, 21, 325 and 326 of the Constitution of India…,' the plea said. Jha said the next Bihar Assembly elections are scheduled to be held in November 2025 and in this background, the Election Commission has ordered a special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls without consultation with the political parties/ stakeholders. 'While the ECI has decided to commence the Special Intensive Revision in the entire country, the process has been initiated first in the State of Bihar, owing to the upcoming elections in the latter part of the year. 'The impugned order prescribes a schedule and requires the submission of enumeration form within 30 days, followed by filing of claims and objections and their disposal within 30 days,' the plea said, The impugned order is 'discriminatory, unreasonable and manifestly arbitrary and violates Article 14, 21 325, 326,' it added. 'It is humbly submitted that it is being used to justify aggressive and opaque revisions of electoral rolls that disproportionately target Muslim, Dalit and poor migrant communities, as such, they are not random patterns but it is engineered exclusions,' the plea said. Jha said the present SIR process is not only 'hasty and ill-timed', but has the effect of 'disenfranchising' crores of voters, thereby robbing them of their constitutional right to vote. 'Moreover, this exercise has been launched during the monsoon season in Bihar, when many districts in Bihar are affected by floods and local population is displaced, thereby making it extremely difficult and almost impossible for a large section of population to meaningfully participate in the process,' he contended in his plea. The RJD leader further contended that one of the most affected classes are the migrant workers, many of whom despite remaining listed in the 2003 voter rolls, are unlikely to be able to return to Bihar within the stipulated time frame of 30 days to submit their enumeration forms leading to automatic deletion of their names from the electoral roll in violation of R 21A of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. 'It is humbly submitted that the stringent documentation requirements have the potential to negatively affect the backward, flood-affected, poor, SC, ST, unempowered minorities, migrants and they will be forced to run from pillar to post to get the documents within a period of just one month,' the plea said. Jha also said that the short deadlines make the whole process unreasonable and unworkable and has the effect of bypassing the procedure of conduct of inquiry into claims and objections as contemplated under the rules. Trinamool Congress leader and MP Mahua Moitra has also moved the Supreme Court challenging the Election Commission's order on special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar. Moitra sought a direction from the apex court to restrain the EC from issuing similar orders for SIR of electoral rolls in other states of the country. A similar plea has also been filed by NGO Association of Democratic Reforms, challenging the poll body's direction for SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar. Several other civil society organisations like PUCL and activists like Yogendra Yadav have approached the top court against the EC's order. The EC on June 24 issued instructions to carry out an SIR in Bihar, apparently to weed out ineligible names and ensure only eligible citizens are included in the electoral roll. The last such revision in Bihar was conducted in 2003. According to the EC, the exercise was necessitated by rapid urbanisation, frequent migration, young citizens becoming eligible to vote, non-reporting of deaths, and inclusion of the names of foreign illegal immigrants. The SIR is being conducted by booth officers, who are conducting a house-to-house survey for verification. PTI MNL MNL KVK KVK This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
