The Supreme Court has requested a response from the Uttarakhand government regarding a plea for the premature release of Rohit Chaturvedi, a convict in the 2003 murder case of poet Madhumita Shukla.
Justices Abhay S. Oka and Augustine George Masih issued the notice, prompting Uttarakhand to address the matter.
Chaturvedi’s plea argues for a directive to the competent authority to facilitate his early release. During the proceedings, Additional Advocate General Garima Prasad, representing the Uttar Pradesh government, highlighted previous Supreme Court rulings, particularly those relating to the Bilkis Bano case. She emphasized that, based on a January 8, 2022 ruling, the state where the trial occurred—Uttarakhand in this case—holds the authority to consider such remission applications.
Prasad explained that since the case had been transferred from Uttar Pradesh to Uttarakhand by the Supreme Court, the latter now serves as the competent authority for handling Chaturvedi’s request. The bench accepted this argument and scheduled the next hearing for November 14.
Previously, the Uttar Pradesh government had approached the Supreme Court seeking a recall of an order that directed it to assess Chaturvedi’s release. The government argued that following the January 8 decision regarding the Bilkis Bano case, it was inappropriate for them to consider the remission.
That ruling quashed the Gujarat government’s remission for 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case, stating that the appropriate authority is the state where the trial took place, which in that instance was Maharashtra.
On January 8, 2022, the Supreme Court clarified that the state in which a convict is tried and sentenced has the jurisdiction to address remission pleas. This effectively nullified a May 13, 2022 judgment that had instructed the Gujarat government to consider remission applications, asserting that such directives had been issued based on misleading information.
In a related context, on December 15, 2023, a Supreme Court bench had previously directed the Uttar Pradesh government to evaluate Chaturvedi’s remission plea, based on the earlier ruling. This order mandated the Uttarakhand government to forward the plea to the Uttar Pradesh home secretary for consideration.
Madhumita Shukla was tragically murdered on May 9, 2003, in Lucknow while pregnant. Former Uttar Pradesh minister Amarmani Tripathi was arrested later that year in connection with the crime, which allegedly stemmed from his relationship with Shukla.
Other co-accused included Tripathi’s wife, Madhumani, nephew Chaturvedi, and associate Santosh Kumar Rai.
On October 24, 2007, a trial court in Uttarakhand convicted all four individuals, sentencing them to life imprisonment. This conviction was upheld by the Uttarakhand High Court in 2012 and confirmed by the Supreme Court in 2013.
In August 2023, the Uttar Pradesh prisons department ordered the premature release of Amarmani and Madhumani Tripathi, citing a 2018 remission policy and their completion of 16 years in prison.
Chaturvedi, however, had his request for early release denied by the Uttarakhand government. He subsequently sought intervention from the Supreme Court, referencing previous judgments on remission in his bid for freedom.
