The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the execution of a young couple, Shabnam and Saleem, convicted of the murder of seven members of the woman’s family, including her aged parents and a 10-month-old baby, in 2008 in Uttar Pradesh.

The stay by a vacation Bench of Justices A.K. Sikri and U.U. Lalit comes shortly after a three-judge Bench, led by Chief Justice of India H. L. Dattu, confirmed the death penalty, calling the murders a ‘rarest of rare’ crime and a brutal case of parricide.

The vacation Bench stopped the execution on a writ petition filed by Shabnam, a teacher and now mother of a seven-year-old boy, and the National Law University, Delhi, through the Death Penalty Litigation Clinic.

“Fundamental rights violated”

The writ petition in the Supreme Court challenged the constitutionality of the death warrants issued by the Sessions Court, Amroha, on May 21 against the young couple, Shabnam and Saleem, after the Supreme Court upheld their capital punishment.

It contended that the death warrants violated the fundamental rights of the prisoners and little regard was paid to the procedure for its issuance.

The petition urged that death row convicts have a fundamental right to be represented by their counsel and be given sufficient notice and opportunity to be heard before a death warrant is issued by the Sessions Court. None of this was followed in this case.

‘Date not mentioned’

“Another egregious violation of the fundamental right to life is that the death warrants do not mention the exact date when the execution will be carried out. Instead, it requires the jail authorities to carry out the execution ‘as soon as possible.’

“Shabnam and Saleem have been put under constant fear of their death due to this,” a statement issued by the Death Penalty Litigation Clinic said.

The statement said this “stay is an assurance to death row prisoners that their lives are not subject to the whims of the State.”

The Bench posted the case for detailed arguments on May 27.

Senior advocates Anand Grover and Raju Ramachandran appeared on behalf of Shabnam and the National Law University (Death Penalty Litigation Clinic), respectively.