SC summons Katju for debate over Soumya rape-murder case

New Delhi: Former judge Markandey Katju has been summoned by the Supreme Court for hinting that the apex court has committed a serious mistake by not imposing death penalty on the convict of the infamous Soumya rape and murder case. This is for the first time that the court has considered the former SC judge's personal blog as the review petition. "Such a view coming from a retired judge of this court needs to be treated with greatest respect and consideration," the three-judged bench of Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice PC Pant and Justice UU Lalit said.

The SC summoned Katju on Monday considering a post that he wrote about a month ago on his Facebook page regarding the case. Katju, in his post, had stated that the SC had erred by acquitting him of the murder charge.

The top court has asked the former judge to present himself for the debate on November 11 and put forth his view about where it went wrong by not imposing death sentence on Govindachmay.

The bench said, "Katju's presence is required to ascertain if the judgement of the September 15 last, on the rape-murder convict suffers from any fundamental flaw so as to require exercise of the review jurisdiction."

What former judge Katju posted on FB page:

• Former Justice Katju, on September 17 last, had said that the judgement needs to be reviewed in an open court hearing.
• "The Supreme Court has grievously erred by law by not holding Govindachamy guilty of murder,” he had posted on his Fb page.

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The case:

• Soumya, 23, was an employee in a shopping mall of Kochi.
• The girl was travelling in an empty ladies’ coach of Ernakulam-Shoranur passanger train on Ferbruary 1, 2011 when Govindachmay entered into it and tried to rob her.
• Govindachmay smashed Soumya’s haed into coach’s wall and pushed her off the moving train when she resisted.
• He then jumped down from the train and carried the girl to a wooden area and raped her.
• She succumbed to injuries at the Government Medical College Hospital, Thrissur, on February 6, 2011.
• Govindachamy had been awarded death sentence by a trial court and the order was upheld by Kerala high court on December 17, 2013.
• The Supreme Court, however, had acquitted him from the murder charge and convicted him only for the committing rape and awarded life imprisonment.
• The apex court, in its verdict, had held that there was no intention on part of the accused to kill the victim.

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