A Bench of Justices B Sudershan Reddy and S S Nijjar sought a response from the apex Court's official on the petition filed by advocate Kiran Suri on behalf of Umesh Reddy who was given death sentence for allegedly killing and raping a Bangalore widow.

Suri submitted before the Court that the Supreme Court Rules, 1966 needed to be amended as per the recommendation of 187th report of the Law Commission making it necessary to hear the review petitions of the death convicts by a Bench comprising not less than three or five Judges in the open court.

All petitions seeking review of the judgements are heard by the Judges in-chamber.
After a brief hearing, the Court issued notice in the matter without specifying the time for the response.

The Bench also allowed a plea by Suri, counsel for Umesh to stay its order upholding the death sentence awarded to him in a case of rape-cum-murder of a Bangalore widow.   
An ex-police constable, Reddy had gained notoriety for his sex crimes, allegedly raping women after their murders.

He had filed the writ petition in the Supreme Court on February 17.

The apex Court had on February 1 refused to show any leniency to the convict who had raped and smothered the victim after tying her hands behind.

He was sentenced to death by the Karnataka High Court on February 18, 2009.