AMRIT BHUSHAN GUPTA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A petition under Article 226 of the Constitution was filed in the High Court of Delhi, seeking a writ in the nature of Mandamus "or any other appropriate writ, direction or order", to restrain the respondents from carrying out the sentence of death passed against Amrit Bhushan Gupta, a person condemned to death for having committed culpable homicide amounting to murder. The petition was filed by Smt. Shanti Devi, purporting to act on behalf of her son Amrit Bhushan Gupta, who was alleged to be insane. A Division Bench of the Delhi High Court passed the following order on it:

(2.) Before the grant of special leave to the petitioner on 27th August, 1976, an application for intervention in the matter had been filed by Tek Chand Chandra supported by an affidavit stating the following facts which have not been controverted:

(3.) This Court when granting special leave in this case was obviously not aware of the facts stated above which were concealed. Learned Counsel for the appellant, when asked to state the question of law which called for the invocation of the jurisdiction of this Court under Article 136 of the Constitution, could only submit that the provisions of Section 30 of the Prisoners Act, 1900, should be applied to the petitioner. This section reads as follows: