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The Supreme Court will deliver its order today on the Italian government’s appeal against National Investigation Agency probing the killing of two Indian fishermen off Kerala coast by its two marines in February 2012.
A bench of Chief Justice Altamas Kabir, Justice Anil R Dave and Justice Vikramajit Sen deferred the pronouncement of its order which was listed yesterday, as it wanted Attorney General C E Vahanvati to be present in the court.
As Kabir said the order would be pronounced in the presence of the attorney general, Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaisingh told the court she could address any question.
However, the court said it would pronounce its order when the attorney general is present.
The Italian government argues that if proved guilty, the two marines would face death sentence, a mandatory punishment if a person is convicted under the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against Safety of Maritime Navigation and Fixed Platforms on Continental Shelf Act (SUA), 2002.
On March 22, after the return of the marines from Italy, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid told parliament that New Delhi had offered Rome an assurance that Massimiliano Lattore and Salvatore Girone would not get the death penalty.
Khurshid said the case did not fall in the category of “rarest of rare cases” that attracts the death penalty in India, so there was no fear of that.
However, the Italian government and the marines moved the top court after the two were booked under the SUA and investigation was entrusted to the NIA.
In the course of the last hearing of the case on April 16, senior counsel Mukul Rohtagi had assailed the NIA for invoking the SUA, under which, he noted, “death is answered by death”. The SUA has a mandatory death penalty, he said.
Section 3(g)(1) of the SUA says that the offender who causes death to any person, (he) shall be punished with death. The section deals with the offences against ship, fixed platform, cargo of a ship, maritime navigational facilities, etc and provides for punishments.