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Sudam @ Rahul Kaniram Jadhav v. The State of Maharashtra

Review Petition (Criminal) · 2019 INSC 1107Decided 1 Oct 2019
Review Petition (Criminal) Nos. 401-402 of 2012
Justice N.V. Ramana · Justice Mohan M. Shantanagoudar · Justice Indira Banerjee

Background

The petitioner had been convicted of murdering his partner, Anita, and her four children (two of whom were his own) and sentenced to death, a sentence confirmed by the Supreme Court in 2011 based on circumstantial evidence: "last seen" testimony, two alleged extra-judicial confessions, and motive. After his first review petition was dismissed without a hearing, the Supreme Court later allowed him an open-court re-hearing of the review, following a change in practice for death-sentence review cases.

Decision Breakdown

Reviewing the record, the Court found two genuine errors in its earlier judgment: it had wrongly relied on one of the two alleged extra-judicial confessions (the witness had actually contradicted this claim in cross-examination), and it had wrongly assumed the victim's face had been crushed to prevent identification, a fact not supported by the medical evidence. The Court held that a review cannot re-open settled findings of guilt merely because another view is possible, and found the conviction itself still stood on the surviving evidence (motive, "last seen" testimony, and the other confession). However, applying the "doctrine of prudence" for sentencing based on circumstantial evidence, the Court concluded there was a reasonable probability it would not have imposed death had these two errors not influenced the original sentencing. It commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment for the remainder of the petitioner's natural life, without any right to remission, citing his poor conduct in prison.

Lesson Learnt

Even a case decided by the Supreme Court itself can be revisited in narrow "review" proceedings if a genuine, demonstrable factual error on the record affected the outcome, but review is not a second appeal, and the Court will only correct specific identified errors, not re-weigh the whole case.

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

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