VIKRAM SINGH @ VICKY Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) For a person found guilty of a capital offence and sentenced to death even by the highest Court of the land the options for reprieve are very limited. Once the conviction of the accused and the sentence awarded to him attains finality the prospects of judicial intervention recede further. Undeterred by these limitations the appellants who have been sentenced to death by hanging both under Section 302 and 364A of the Indian Penal Code have taken a chance with a petition seeking review of their conviction not because anything grossly erroneous is pointed out about the conclusions arrived at by the Courts that dealt with their cases but on the ground that Section 364A of the IPC which makes kidnapping for ransom an offence is itself unconstitutional being violative of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution. Writ Petition (Crl.) D No. 15177 of 2012 was first filed in this Court by the petitioner, Vikram Singh @ Vicky for a declaration that Section 364A inserted in the Indian Penal Code by Act 42 of 1993 w.e.f. 22nd May 1993 is ultra vires the Constitution to the extent the same prescribes death sentence for any one proved guilty. The petitioner prayed for a further writ quashing the death sentence awarded to him by the trial Court, upheld by the High Court and finally affirmed by this Court in Criminal Appeals No.1396-97 of 2008. A mandamus directing commutation of the sentence awarded to the petitioners to imprisonment for life was also prayed for.

(3.) The writ petition aforementioned was eventually withdrawn with liberty to the petitioners to file a writ petition before the jurisdictional High Court. The Petitioners accordingly filed CWP No.18956 of 2012 before the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh once again praying for striking down Section 364A of IPC and for an order restraining the execution of the death warrant against them. Re-opening of the case of the petitioners and commutation of the death sentence to imprisonment for life were also prayed for in the said petition. A Division Bench of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana has, upon consideration, dismissed the petition by its judgment and order dated 3rd October 2012 which is impugned in these appeals.