A day before her retirement, Delhi High Court Justice Mukta Gupta pronounced 65 verdicts in various criminal cases, including a death penalty reference. Justice Gupta had fast-tracked these matters in the final months of her tenure as a judge. While some of these cases had been pending before the high court since 2018-19, they were concluded, and judgments were reserved in April and May 2023.
Lawyers involved in these cases stated that this step aimed to address the backlog of pending criminal appeals and death penalty references in the Delhi High Court. Justice Gupta delivered 55 verdicts in a division bench with Justice Poonam Bamba and 10 verdicts with Justice Anish Dayal. Despite the high court being on summer vacation, the verdicts were pronounced on the penultimate day before Justice Gupta’s retirement on June 27.
In a death sentence reference matter, the bench commuted the death penalty of a man convicted in 2021 for kidnapping for ransom and murder of a 12-year-old. The bench observed that while the kidnapping and ransom demand were pre-planned, the murder did not meet the criteria of being “rarest of rare” as it was not deemed diabolic or premeditated. The convict, Jeevak Nagpal, has now been sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of remission for 20 years.
Other criminal cases where verdicts were pronounced include the overturning of the conviction of a man accused of murdering his 17-year-old daughter for allegedly eloping with a boy. The bench held that there was insufficient evidence to establish the timeline of the alleged elopement and the girl’s return to her parents’ house, or even her return itself.
In another case, the bench acquitted the stepmother and brother while upholding the life imprisonment sentence for the husband. The case involved the burning alive of a woman in her kitchen in 2003. The husband’s conviction was upheld due to burn injuries on his hands, while the mother-in-law and brother-in-law were acquitted due to a lack of evidence.
Out of the 65 verdicts pronounced on Monday, 42 judgments have been published on the Delhi High Court website as of Tuesday morning.
Prior to becoming a judge, Justice Mukta Gupta served as the Public Prosecutor for Delhi and handled numerous criminal cases. Notably, she prosecuted high-profile cases such as the Jessica Lal, Naina Sahni, and Nitish Katara murders, as well as the criminal cases related to the 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament and the 2000 terrorist attack on the Red Fort in Delhi.
Additionally, Justice Mukta Gupta represented the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in significant cases, including the murders of Priyadarshini Mattoo and Madhumita Sharma, as well as the case involving the intelligence leak from the Indian Naval War Room. As a lawyer, she also served as amicus curiae in a case concerning the rescue and rehabilitation of sex-trafficking victims from Delhi’s notorious GB Road.
In her farewell speech on June 2, Gupta mentioned that her experience in monitoring rescue and rehabilitation had profoundly influenced her thought process.
Justice Gupta expressed that her “fourth innings” as a retired judge would involve continuing her legal practice as a lawyer, albeit at a slower pace.
