New Delhi: A special NIA court in the Patiala House courts on Monday clarified that the predecessor judge who passed the order of conviction after his transfer will hear the arguments on sentencing against Kashmiri separatist Asiya Andrabi and two others.
Special Judge Chanderjit Singh was transferred from the NIA court to the Karkardooma courts in November 2025 but as the judgment in the case was pending, he took the case file with him for pronouncing the verdict.
On January 14, he convicted Andrabi and others for offences including conspiracy to wage war against the country and being members of a terrorist organisation under the stringent anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), 1967.
According to Section 16 of the UAPA, “Whoever commits a terrorist act shall, if such act has resulted in the death of any person, be punishable with death or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine.”
On Monday, the present NIA court Special Judge Prashant Sharma said, “Now, an issue arises as to whether this court should hear arguments on sentence for the purpose of passing an order on sentence or it should be heard by the predecessor of this court, who had passed judgment of conviction against the convicts?”
Relying upon the law and judicial precedents, Judge Sharma underlined that “judgment of conviction in criminal cases is complete when an order on sentence is passed”.
He said, “The situation would have been different had the predecessor of this court passed the judgment of conviction before I was transferred to this court (on November 20, 2024).”
“In such a situation, for avoiding prejudice to the parties and for expeditious disposal of this case, I could have passed an order on sentence. That is not the situation here, in the present case.”
The judge said that the predecessor judge had taken the case file with him for the pronouncement of judgment after the transfer order, and before the order on conviction was passed, the matter, fixed for a verdict, was adjourned on November 26, December 11, December 24 and January 1.
He said, “So, on all the said dates, it was the predecessor of this court which was seized of the matter. He had not only extensively heard final arguments rather but had also considered record of this case, threadbare.”
The judge said that the predecessor judge had heard the matter right from the stage of defence evidence till reserving it for judgment.
He said, “Law requires that the predecessor of this court should pass an order on sentence so that convicts can file an appeal, if required, according to law. Now, in such a situation, if I pass an order on sentence, then it will not be proper.”
He directed the Tihar jail superintendent to produce the convicts before Judge Singh in Karkardooma on February 11.
Andrabi, the founder of the all-women separatist group Dukhtaraan-e-Millat (DeM), was arrested in April 2018 and charges were framed against her under the UAPA for allegedly conspiring to commit terrorist acts and providing support to such groups.
On January 14, Judge Singh found Andrabi and her two associates, Sofi Fehmeeda and Nahida Nasreen, guilty of offences under Sections 18 (punishment for conspiracy) and 38 (offence relating to membership of a terrorist organisation) of the UAPA.
The court also convicted the three under IPC sections 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups), 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration), 121-A (conspiracy to wage war against government), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief).
