The Supreme Court, while setting aside the last remaining conviction of Surendra Koli in the Nithari killings case, held that allowing it to stand when all companion cases based on the same evidence have been found unsustainable would violate Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India BR Gavai observed that the evidentiary foundation of Koli's conviction had already been declared inadmissible in the related cases, and that maintaining a different outcome on an identical record would amount to arbitrary disparity.

“ Article 21 of the Constitution insists on a fair, just and reasonable procedure. That insistence is at its acutest where capital punishment is imposed…To allow a conviction to stand on evidentiary basis that this Court has since rej

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