SC rejects plea of TADA convict against its own judgement

The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a petition by Ashiq Hussain Faktoo, a Jammu and Kashmir resident, against his conviction and life imprisonment in a TADA case.

A three-judge bench presided over by Justice Ranjan Gogoi held his writ petition against the apex court’s verdict of sentencing him to life imprisonment as not maintainable.

Faktoo has been lodged in the Srinagar Central Jail for more than 23 years for the murder of human rights activist Hridhay Nath Wanchoo.

Asiya Andrabi, a pro-Pakistan separatist and the founding leader of Dukhtaran-e-Millat, is the wife of Faktoo.

“The present writ petition under Article 32 of the Constitution by no stretch of reasoning would fit into any of the permissible categories of post conviction exercises permissible in law,” the bench, also comprising Justices Prafulla C Pant and A M Khanwilkar, said.

Senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, representing the convict, challenged the reliance on the contentious confessional statements for his conviction under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, 1987, which subsequently stood repealed.

He maintained a writ of “ex debito justitiae” (as a matter of right) has to be allowed as a manifest miscarriage of justice had taken place by the conviction of the accused.

Court dismisses petition

The court, however, dismissed his petition, holding that the principle of ex debito justitiae would come to his aid only in a situation where the order of this court had been passed without notice or where the order has the effect of eroding the public confidence in the justice delivery system.

The apex court had in 2003 overturned a Jammu court verdict that acquitted Faktoo in 2001.