After weeks of speculation and uncertainty, former Supreme Court Justice Markandey Katju is set to appear in the apex court in the infamous Soumya rape and murder case on Friday.
A bench comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Prafulla Pant and UU Lalit had challenged Katju’s Facebook post after the bench set aside the life sentence awarded to accused Govindachamy by the Kerala High Court and reduced the murder charge to one of assault.
After the apex court’s controversial verdict in September, Katju had come down heavily on the verdict, claiming that the court had erred in its judgement.
Taking note of his Facebook post, the apex court had asked him to appear before the bench and make his submissions. Katju, however, initially refused to do so, citing a “specific prohibition under Article 124 (7) of the Constitution against former judges doing so”.
But days after refusing to appear before the bench, Katju took a U-turn and said he had reconsidered his decision and has decided to appear before the court.
On Thursday, Katju said that he would be appearing before the court at 2pm on Friday. Saying that judges are also humans who are bound to make mistakes, he recounted a case in which he "realized the mistake he committed" and referred the case to a larger bench.
Explaining the reason for the change of mind, Katju wrote in a Facebook post that he had earlier refused to appear because he had been under the false impression that the court had “ordered” and not “requested” him to make his pleadings.
Saying that the court seemed to be sincere about their desire to reconsider their judgement, Katju informed that he would appear before the court on November 11 at 2pm.