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Sanjay v. Union of India

Writ Petition (Criminal) · 2025 INSC 317Decided 6 Feb 2025
W.P.(Crl.) No. 224 of 2019
Justice Vikram Nath · Justice Sanjay Karol · Justice Sandeep Mehta

Background

The petitioner, Sanjay, had been sentenced to death in 2004 for the rape and murder of a four-year-old child, a sentence confirmed by the Allahabad High Court in 2005. While his criminal appeal against that conviction and death sentence (Crl.A. No. 239 of 2025) was pending before the Supreme Court, he had also filed this separate writ petition in 2019 concerning the clemency/mercy petition process before the President of India.

Decision Breakdown

When the matter was taken up on 6 February 2025, senior counsel for the petitioner informed the Court that the President of India had, in the meantime, rejected the mercy petition. Since the specific relief sought in this writ petition had thereby been overtaken by events, the Bench dismissed the petition as having become infructuous, without going into its merits. Notably, on the very same day, in the connected Criminal Appeal No. 239 of 2025 arising from the same case, the same Bench separately found the underlying conviction and death sentence unsafe on the merits and acquitted Sanjay, ordering his release, though that acquittal is part of a distinct proceeding from the writ petition disposed of here.

Lesson Learnt

A writ petition can become "infructuous" and be dismissed without a decision on its merits if the specific relief it sought is overtaken by later events (here, the President's decision on the mercy petition): this is a procedural outcome, not a ruling on the underlying dispute.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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