New Delhi:
The Supreme Court today stayed the execution of Sonu Sardar, a convict on death row currently lodged in Raipur jail, after he challenged the court's rules guiding its review of a death sentence.
His lawyer had argued that similar petitions filed by 1993 Bombay blasts convict Yakub Memon and Red Fort attack convict Mohammed Arif are pending in the Supreme Court.
The court had stayed their executions and the issue had been referred to a constitution bench.
Sardar's lawyer argued that his petition should also be tagged with the earlier ones.
The Supreme Court then stayed Sardar's execution and referred the issue to a constitution bench.
Sardar was sentenced to death for killing five members of a family in Chhattisgarh in 2004; his mercy petition was rejected by the President in April this year.