NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday issued a contempt of court notice to the Principal Secretary of Delhi government’s home department for not deciding the remission plea of Sukhdev Yadav alias Pehalwan, a convict in 2002 Nitish Katara murder case.
“Its orders were not followed unless drastic measures were taken,” a two-judge bench of the apex court, led by Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan asked the Principal Secretary to explain why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him and asked him to appear before it through video-conferencing on March 28.
The bench decided to initiate contempt proceedings against the Principal Secretary after seeing that its orders were not complied with on the issue of granting remission to Sukhdev Yadav, despite giving an undertaking to the court.
The top court observed that “we have seen that without an extension of time, this government will never comply with the orders of this court regarding remission. We are seeing it in every case. Earlier there was an excuse that the Chief Minister was not available,” said the apex court. Sukhdev Yadav sought remission after serving a 20-year jail term without remission in the case.
The SC in its order stated, “A solemn statement on instructions of the state government was recorded in the order. Now we are informed that the Sentence Review Board (SRB) is to consider the case of the petitioner today. The state government has not shown elementary courtesy of even making an explanation application for grant of extension of time.” On October 3, 2016, the SC awarded a 25-year jail term without the benefit of remission to Vikas Yadav and his cousin Vishal.