THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The State Government will decide on a topnotch criminal lawyer to file a review petition in the Supreme Court in the Soumya case in the next two days. Law Minister A K Balan, who was huddled with Kerala’s standing counsel and other officials in Delhi on Friday, is set to finalize the lawyer, “the best legal mind possibly” from a shortlist after consulting Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The review petition has to be filed within 30 days and the entire drafting is expected to be done in a fortnight. Once the petition is submitted, the procedure followed by the apex court is to discuss it at the justices’ chamber in the absence of counsel and decide whether the case has to be reopened. Kerala also plans to submit a concurrent petition to list the case for hearing in the open court.
Earlier, Mr Balan told reporters that the State would draft “the services of the best legal mind in the country to ensure death penalty for Soumya’s killer as he remained off the hook on technical grounds. The LDF stand is that he should get the capital punishment a hundred times” he said, when asked whether this was not against the CPM stated policy of ending death penalty. He said he could not gauge how the apex court had exonerated the assailant, who was found guilty on several other counts. He would consult the Chief Minister and follow up on Justice Markanteya Katju’s offer to help the State in further stages of litigation.
However, this offer was not considered seriously at Mr Balan’s meeting with counsel in Delhi.
Earlier, Advocate General CP Sudhakar Prasad told reporters in Kochi that the Government was exploring the legal options of the filing a review petition in the Supreme Court in against the verdict of the three-judges bench in Soumya murder, Consultations were being held with senior advocates of the Supreme Court. The AG also hinted at the possibility of changing former justice Thomas P Joseph, who appeared for the state government in the court. But the AG insisted that the Adv Joseph was not at fault in arguing the case. Adv. Joseph had anticipated the weakness in the probe and tried to counter it in the court, he said. The AG also said Adv Suresan, the public prosecutor in the trial court, was not keen on cooperating with legal team in the Supreme Court.
