ORDER :

Kauser Edappagath, J.

The power and jurisdiction of the High Court to order enquiry as to the mitigating circumstances of the convict in a proceeding for confirmation of death sentence under section 366 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (for short ‘Cr. P.C’) falls for consideration in these Death Sentence References (for short ‘DSRs’).

2. The respondents in the above six DSRs were convicted, inter alia, under section 302 of IPC and awarded capital punishment. The respective Sessions Court submitted the proceedings to this Court for confirmation of the death sentence. All the respondents, except respondent No.2 in DSR No.6/2018, have challenged their conviction and sentence in the separate appeals filed by them, which are also pending at this Court.

3. A Division Bench of this Court recently in State of Kerala v. Nino Mathew, (2023 KHC OnLine 369) held that the High Court can order to carry out study as to the mitigating circumstances of a death convict even before the hearing of the appeal filed by him against conviction. Project 39A of the National Law University, Delhi, was entrusted with the task of conducting the study.

4. When we were about to pass a similar order to carry