No legal aid to accused, SC orders fresh trial in 30-year-old blast case

SC set aside conviction and death sentence of an accused in Rajasthan’s 1996 Samleti bus blast caseNEW DELHI: Holding that legitimacy of a judicial verdict is measured not by severity of the punishment but by the fairness of the processes through which guilt is determined, Supreme Court Tuesday set aside the conviction and death sentence of an accused in Rajasthan's 1996 Samleti bus blast case in which 14 people had died, noting that meaningful legal assistance was not made available to him to defend himself.To find out if the accused, Abdul Hameed, was represented by a lawyer, SC interacted with him through video from jail and analysed the order sheet of the trial court. It concluded that the accused remained undefended in court proceedings.A bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sanjay Karol an