The Supreme Court has issued a notice to the Uttarakhand government seeking its response to a plea for the premature release of Rohit Chaturvedi, one of the convicts in the 2003 murder of poet Madhumita Shukla.
Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih are overseeing the appeal that challenges the earlier decision regarding Chaturvedi’s release. The plea follows a significant legal precedent concerning state authority over remission pleas, notably highlighted in the Bilkis Bano case judgments of January and May 2022.
The request for Chaturvedi’s release was made after the Uttar Pradesh government was directed by the Supreme Court to consider his remission under Uttarakhand’s jurisdiction, where the trial was conducted. This was a shift from the earlier ruling, which was later overridden by a Supreme Court judgment emphasizing that the state where the trial is held has the rightful authority to decide on remission.
Additional Advocate General Garima Prasad, representing Uttar Pradesh, cited the Bilkis Bano case to assert that Uttarakhand is the competent authority to address Chaturvedi’s plea. The bench has scheduled further hearings for November 14, providing time for the involved parties to prepare their cases.
The controversy traces back to the murder of Shukla in May 2003, a case that drew widespread attention due to its connection to Amarmani Tripathi, a former UP minister and a central figure in the conspiracy leading to Shukla’s death. Tripathi, along with his wife and associates, was convicted in Uttarakhand and sentenced to life imprisonment.
