Soumya case: Katju firm in stand

NEW DELHI: Justice Markandey Katju Thursday said that he sticks to his earlier stand that the Supreme Court had made some serious mistakes in the Soumya case by commuting the death sentence of the accused to life. Mistakes can happen to judges and if that has happened, it should be corrected, he wrote in his Facebook page. Katju has been asked to appear before the court on Friday at 2 pm and give an explanation on his statement over the Supreme Court verdict.

In a Facebook post, he had said, "I genuinely believe that the Supreme Court had made some serious mistakes in its judgement by reversing the death penalty awarded by Kerala High Court".    

"Possibly these mistakes were made because the court was so overburdened with work that it cannot give as much time to cases as they deserve, which they would have otherwise done, had it not been for this heavy load of cases to decide," he said.

Quoting celebrated British Judge Lord Denning, Justice Katju said, 'The Judge has not been born who has not made a mistake'.    

"We are all humans, and all of us make mistakes, but a gentleman is one who realises his mistake, acknowledges it, and seeks to make amends," Justice Katju said.

 "This should apply to judges too. I myself have sometimes made mistakes in my judgements," he sai

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