In a pre-dawn order at the residence of future CJI HL Dattu with Justice AR Dave, the Supreme Court has stayed the execution of Surinder Koli, who was convicted of the so-called Nithari serial murders and rapes that took place in Noida from 2005.

Senior counsel Indira Jaising obtained the one-week stay order hours before Koli was due to be hanged, in order to allow a fresh review petition against the sentence to be heard in an open court, reported The Hindu, in line with an earlier constitution bench judgment that it is mandatory to allow oral hearings in death penalty review cases.

Jaising told The Hindu: “We approached Justice Dattu at 1.30 am. There was a sitting of a Bench of Justices Dattu and Dave, which ordered that the execution be stayed for a period of a week until Koli’s fresh review be heard by a Bench comprising three judges of the Supreme Court in an open courtroom, where his counsel will be allowed to submit limited oral arguments on his behalf pleading for reversal of his reversal of death penalty.”