NEW DELHI: In a significant and rare ruling, the Supreme Court on Monday allowed the reconsideration of the death penalty imposed on Vasanta Sampta Dupare, a Nagpur resident, convicted for the rape and murder of a four-year-old girl.
The top court set aside its 2017 verdict, which had upheld Dupare’s death sentence, and ruled that capital punishment cases can be reopened under Article 32 of the Constitution if mandatory guidelines for sentencing are not followed.
A three-judge bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sanjay Karol, and Sandeep Mehta held that Dupare’s sentence would be re-examined in light of mitigating circumstances, noting that there had been a breach of procedural safeguards. “A fresh hearing will be conducted to decide the punishment,” the Court said, providing a significant relief to Dupare.
It also cited the 2022 Manoj Vs Madhya Pradesh judgement in which the top court issued several guidelines and mandated the trial courts to collect the accused’s psychiatric and psychological evaluation report before awarding death.
“We hold that Article 32 of the Constitution empowers this court in cases related to capital punishment to reopen the sentencing stage where the accused has been condemned to death penalty without ensuring that the guidelines mandated in the Manoj vs Madhya Pradesh was followed,” the bench said.
“This corrective power is invoked precisely to compel rigorous application of the safeguards laid down in Manoj judgment in such cases” the bench said.