Toughening its stance on the atrocities against women, particularly those falling in the range of brutal domestic violence, the Supreme Court issued notice to a man from Andhra Pradesh asking him why his life sentence should not be converted into death penalty for the barbaric murder of his wife.
In another notice to a man from Haryana, the top court also sought his response why his 10 years rigorous imprisonment for a dowry related murder of his wife should not be enhanced to the life sentence.
Both the notices were issued by a bench of Justices Markanday Katju and Gyan Sudha Misra, while citing two other cases of identical nature in which it had issued notices to the convicted husbands for converting their life sentence into death penalty for brutal and barbaric murder of their wives.
In the Andhra Pradesh case, the order was issued on an appeal of Thathamsetty Suresh, who incidentally challenged his conviction and life sentence for the murder of his wife.
While giving the graphic details of the manner Suresh murdered his wife inflicting multiple wounds on her body before setting her on fire, the apex court said in such cases of severe domestic violence normally there were no eye-witnesses.
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SC may transfer Hisar dalit case to Punjab
New Delhi, Nov. 23: The Supreme Court on Tuesday indicated it would transfer the trial relating to large-scale violence against dalits in Haryana’s Hisar district to Punjab in view of the alleged harassment faced by the victims and witnesses.
A bench of justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly expressed displeasure at the prevailing situation asked the additional district sessions judge, Hisar, to send a report in the context of affidavits filed by two advocates on behalf of the victims. It asked Haryana to file its response within a week and pulled up the state government for not setting up a State Human Rights Commission till date. The additional affidavits filed in the case by advocates Veena Sharma and Rajat Khalsan detailed the alleged threats and the hostile atmosphere towards the victims/witnesses by the perpetrators of the violence. “We are indicating to you that it would be appropriate if the case is transferred to Chandirgarh. Let it go to Chandigarh, at least they will feel secure,” the court observed. —PTI