A bench of Justices P P Naolekar and Lokeshwar Singh Panta stayed the death sentence and issued notices to Tamil Nadu on the appeal of the petitioners, namely,  Nedun Chezhian, Ravindran and C Muniappan.

The Madras High Court had confirmed the death sentence of the three accused on December 6 , 2007.

The appellants said in their petitions that the High Court judgement confirming the capital punishments awarded to them did not fall in the category of “rarest of rare” and that they were entitled to the exception of grave.

More than 2000 AIADMK workers, while protesting against the conviction of J Jayalalitha in a criminal case, had torched a bus carrying the three victims namely Kokila Vani, Gayathri and Hemalatha, along with 44 other students and two teachers.

On February 16, 2007, Trial Court at Salem had awarded death sentence to them and also sentenced 25 others to varying sentences.

Apex court restrains tvs
New Delhi, DHNS: The Supreme Court on Friday restrained TVS Motor from continuing with its process of booking for TVS “Flame” motorcycle till January 29. The decision came after the Bajaj Auto Ltd claimed that the technology has been copied from its popular model “Discover”.

A bench headed by Justice H S Kapadia said: “No further booking shall be made from today till January 29. Status quo with regard to booking is to be maintained.”

The Court directed the single judge of the Madras High Court to hear the interim application and dispose of the matter by January 29. Bajaj Auto Ltd had challenged a Division Bench order of the Madras High Court of December 20 allowing TVS Motor to go ahead with its booking and delivery of its new bike.