MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court has permitted S Sridhar, one of the nine convicts sentenced to death in the Jeyaraj-Beniks custodial death case, to argue his appeal in person on July 27. This was because he chose not to engage any advocate to represent him.
A bench comprising justices AD Jagadish Chandira and R Poornima, which is hearing the referred trial case and appeals relating to the death penalty imposed on nine cops, further sought a report from the Registry on appointing a senior advocate to assist the court.
This is based on a recent SC judgment which said a senior counsel and two advocates have to be appointed by the legal services committee to represent the convict in matters relating to death sentence in HCs and SC, even if he or she engages a private counsel.
Since Sridhar, who appeared before the court through video conference, stated that he would argue the case as a party-in-person, the judges told him to file a memo to that effect, but opined that a senior advocate should still be appointed in view of the apex court’s order.
However, they rejected his request to appear before the court in person for all hearings on the case. Instead, they allowed him to argue his case in person on July 27. The CBI was instructed to complete its arguments between July 20 and 24. The court has also allotted its entire afternoon session (from 2.15 pm till the rising of the court).