New Delhi:
The Supreme Court has admitted its fault in awarding the death sentence to a man from Assam who was found guilty of killing four members of a family in 1992.
The man was 16 when he was convicted. He petitioned the Assam governor who commuted his death sentence. However, the Supreme Court overruled that.
The man then began a long legal battle which included the support of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). Initially, the Supreme Court said the NHRC could not get involved.
Now, however, the court has agreed that the death sentence should not apply. The Supreme Court's judges said today," The instances of this Court's judgement violating the human rights of the citizens may be extremely rare but it cannot be said that such a situation can never happen. On review of the reasoning in the petition, we find that the finding in the judgment is vitiated by errors apparent on the face of the record."