The death sentence of serial killer Surender Koli — prime convict in the murder of a number of children at Nithari village in Gautam Buddh district in 2006 — was on Wednesday commuted to life imprisonment by the Allahabad High Court. The HC rapped the UP Government for the “inordinate and unexplained delay” in deciding his mercy petition.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PKS Baghel passed the order while allowing a PIl filed by People’s Union for Democratic Rights, clubbed together with another petition filed by Koli himself.
Both the petitions had questioned the constitutionality of the execution of the death sentence in the light of the fact that Koli has been in jail for more than seven years and that the time taken in deciding his mercy petition alone was “three years and three months”, violative of the Right to life granted in Article 21 of the Constitution.
Coming down heavily on the State Government, the High Court noted that out of the three years and three months which elapsed in deciding Koli’s mercy petition, “as many as 26 months” were taken up by the Uttar Pradesh Government itself, which was “unnecessary and unreasonable”.
“Once the judgement is pronounced and the death penalty attains finality, the execution must be at the earliest without unreasonable delay,” the court said, adding “prolonged detention and the consequent wait for execution of death sentence is dehumanising for the person concerned and violates Article 21 of the Constitution”.
Koli had filed his mercy petition before the Governor on May 7, 2011, which was rejected on April 2, 2013, and was forwarded to the Union Home Ministry on July 19, 2013, after the elapse of nearly three months.
The court also turned down the argument of Advocate General Vijay Bahadur Singh that in view of the gravity of the offence committed, the court should not review the execution of the death sentence. The court also took a critical view of the three death warrants issued by the trial court on May 3, 2011; September 2, 2014 and September 3, 2014, saying in none of these the exact date for hanging was mentioned which went “against the principles of natural justice and violated Koli’s fundamental rights”.
Public outcry over shoddy investigation by police led to the matter being referred to the CBI. However, on September 11, 2009 the Allahabad High Court upheld the conviction of Koli while making it clear that the judgement shall have no bearing on trial in other related cases.
Koli moved the Supreme Court but his appeal against the trial court order was rejected following which he filed his mercy petition. After the rejection of mercy petition, Koli had filed a recall application before the Supreme Court but it was also turned down. Pandher is currently out on bail.