'The (Collegium system of appointing judges) is absolutely whimsical.'
'When two organs of our Constitution, which are supposed to be the strongest pillars of Indian democracy, start mistrusting each other, then what is left of the country? What is left of democracy?'
The Delhi high court judge, who had awarded death penalty to Santosh Kumar Singh in the Priyadarshini Mattoo case, on Wednesday said that he did not view the Supreme Court's decision of commuting the sentence as a failure of judicial system as apex court judges are 'wiser'.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday commenced the hearing on an appeal filed by Manu Sharma, challenging his conviction and life sentence in the Jessica Lall murder case, with his counsel alleging the Delhi high court bench had made up its mind to hold him guilty.
Mattoo was murdered in January 1996 in Delhi.
Calling receipt of the anonymous letter as "disturbing", Justice R S Sodhi posted for April 27 the matter before another Bench, which will include him.
Admitting the appeal against Rathi's conviction and sentence in the shooting case, a Division Bench of Justice R S Sodhi and Justice B N Chaturvedi sought reply from the investigating agency by November 13.
The court had taken suo motu notice of the articles and cartoons published in the Mid-Day against former chief justice Y K Sabharwal.
The Bench comprising Justice R S Sodhi and Justice P K Bhasin expressed dissatisfaction at the manner in which the witnesses failed to give proper testimonies in the case.
Six other convicts in the case, including Mohd Ashfaq's wife Rehmana Yousuf Farooqui, were acquitted.
The Delhi high court on Wednesday aquitted former Union minister Shibu Soren in the Shashi Nath Jha murder case.
The court expressed displeasure over getting the anonymous letter while hearing the matter pertaining to witnesses who turned hostile in the Jessica Lall murder case.
The order was passed by Justice R S Sodhi while hearing a petition filed by Europe-based Hinduja brothers seeking\nthe discharge of the case.
In July last year, a Delhi Court had sentenced Babloo and Shah to life imprisonment for killing Suneja, a Delhi-based businessman, in 1992.
"The offence was not committed on a spur of the moment as alleged by him (Sharma) but it was an act of butchery, which leaves no room for compassion," the bench said.
A Division Bench of Justices R S Sodhi and P K Bhasin asked the witnesses to file replies explaining why they had retracted from their earlier statements to the police, and fixed February 19 as the date for further hearing of the matter.
On the night of April 29-30, 1999, Jessica was shot dead after she refused to serve him drinks at a restaurant owned by socialite Bina Ramani.
It also dismissed an application of the Delhi Police seeking permission to submit additional evidence in the case.
He said entire circumstances were invented by the Police to falsely implicate Manu. Delhi Police has challenged the acquittal of Manu and others in the Jessica Lal murder case.
"I have 14 reasons to show that how her evidence does not advance the prosecution case at all."
"Two-thirds of the evidence produced by the prosecution is false. When majority of the evidence is false, the whole case is doubtful," Jethmalani argued.
January 6 is the next date of hearing.
Delhi high court on Tuesday dismissed an application by prime accused Manu Sharma seeking transfer of Jessica Lal murder case to another court
Nazreen's mother had earlier filed the petition seeking production of her minor daughter who she said was under the illegal custody of Arif.
The Delhi high court on Friday confirmed the death sentence awarded to alleged Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorist Hussain, who was charged with engineering a bomb blast in a bus in Delhi in December 1997 that killed four people.
A PIL wanted the court to direct the authorities to restrain doctors from agitating.
The court had later discharged 10 out of 32 witnesses who turned hostile during the trial of the case as it was satisfied with their reply. In December, the Delhi High Court convicted and sentenced Sharma to life imprisonment.
The high court had described the judgment of the then additional sessions judge Bhayana's reasoning for acquitting Sharma, as strange and totally wrong.
Some persons, who knew the co-accused Vikas Yadav and Amardeep Singh Gill and were made witnesses in the case, were also served notices to explain for changing their stand before the trial court.
The court convicted Manu under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code for the murder of model Jessica on Monday.
Gill's plea for bail is likely to be heard on Wednesday by the Division Bench of Justice R S Sodhi and Justice P K Bhasin.
The case was re-opened following the police appeal challenging the acquittal of all nine accused by a lower court.
Jethmalani has said it is untrue that Manu shot Jessica when he was refused a drink.
A Division Bench of Justice R S Sodhi and Justice P K Bhasin issued notice on his application seeking transfer to some other court to the state and fixed the matter for hearing on Tuesday.
"As the weapon has not been recovered yet by the investigating agency, the question of reliability on such report does not arise," she added.
The Delhi high court has asked the CBI not to arrest Bhupendra Singh Patel alias Rahul and his two associates Arvind Vijaymohan and Praveen Jain.
It said it was not convinced with the grounds of the CBI to condone over 4,500 days' delay in filing the appeal. The CBI had filed the appeal on February 2 this year.
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