The Uttarakhand High Court has appointed an amicus curiae to assist it in reviewing the death sentence awarded to Haidar Ali, who was convicted of brutally murdering a woman in Haridwar. The appointment came as part of the mandatory judicial review process for capital punishment cases.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Guhanathan Narendar and Justice Alok Mahra appointed advocate Manisha Bhandari as amicus curiae (friend of the court) on Wednesday. The court directed her to assist in assessing the severity of the crime and the appropriateness of the death sentence imposed by the trial court.
The case pertains to a gruesome incident in which Haidar Ali was convicted of beheading a woman who had rejected his repeated advances and marriage proposals. According to the complaint filed by the victim’s brother, a resident of Haridwar, the murder occurred when Ali, accompanied by his associates, barged into their home in his absence and decapitated the woman.
On June 12, a sessions court in Roorkee, Haridwar, held Ali guilty of murder and awarded him the death penalty. As per legal procedure, the trial court’s judgment was forwarded to the high court for confirmation.
The High Court will now assess whether the crime qualifies as one of the “rarest of the rare” — the legal threshold necessary for upholding a death sentence under Indian law.
The next hearing in the matter is expected to focus on the arguments presented by the amicus curiae, who will offer an independent legal perspective to aid the court in reaching a just conclusion.
