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.
A Division Bench of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana has, upon companysideration, dismissed the petition by its judgment and order dated 3rd October 2012 which is impugned in these appeals.
The writ petition aforementioned was eventually withdrawn with liberty to the petitioners to file a writ petition before the jurisdictional High Court.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 companymutation of the death sentence to imprisonment for life were also prayed for in the said petition.
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 companymutation of the sentence awarded to the petitioners to imprisonment for life was also prayed for.
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 companyviction number because anything grossly erroneous is pointed out about the companyclusions 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.
22nd May 1993 is ultra vires the Constitution to the extent the same prescribes death sentence for any one proved guilty.
S. THAKUR, J. Leave granted.
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 companyviction of the accused and the sentence awarded to him attains finality the prospects of judicial intervention recede further.
