Keeping death-row convicts in condemn cells: SC sets Oct 28 to hear govt petition

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court today set October 28 for hearing the government's leave to appeal petition challenging a High Court verdict that ordered the authorities concerned to move the death-row convicts to ordinary cells of jails from condemned cells.

A bench of the Appellate Division headed by Justice Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury set the date after writ petitioners' lawyer Mohammad Shishir Manir prayed for an early hearing of the leave to appeal petition.

The SC chamber judge stayed the HC verdict following a government petition in this regard on May 15 last year. The chamber judge also asked the government to file a leave to appeal petition with the Appellate Division against the HC verdict.

The HC on May 13, 2024 delivered the verdict saying that the prisoners, who have been sentenced to death, with pending appeals must not be kept in condemned cells.

It ordered the authorities concerned to move such convicts from condemned cells to ordinary cells within two years, starting immediately. The order came following a petition by three convicts on August 31, 2021.

In the verdict, the HC said prisoners, who have been sentenced to death by the trial courts, cannot be kept in condemned cells until their appeals, review petitions and mercy petitions are finally disposed of by the HC, and Appellate Division of the Supreme Court and the president of the republic respectively.

Considering exceptional circumstances, any particular prisoner under the death sentence may be kept in solitary confinement if he or she has a contagious disease or mental health issues, only in the interest of security of themselves or other prisoners. However, they must be given the opportunity to give their statements to the jail authorities before they are moved to condemned cells, the HC said.