How long will you take to finish a two-year course: HC to Priyadarshini Mattoo's murderer

New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Thursday questioned the killer of law student Priyadarshini Mattoo on how long will he take to complete the two-year law course he has been pursuing since 2012.

While hearing the plea of Santosh Kumar Singh seeking parole to write the LLM exams, scheduled to start from May 22, Justice Mukta Gupta sought complete details of his education.

Singh is serving life term for rape and murder of Mattoo in 1996.


The court noted that Singh has been pursuing the two-year LLM programme since 2012 but has still not finished the course.

“For how long will your LLM go on? When this incident had happened, he had already completed LLB and was also pursuing some course in law at that time,” it observed.

“File a detailed affidavit explaining the studies he has done in his life and in which year. For how long his education will continue? Let us be clear about his education,” Justice Gupta directed, even as she underlined HC was not in any way stopping him from studying.

The court listed the matter for hearing on May 21, a day before Singh’s examinations start.

On Singh’s behalf his counsel said his client was studying LLM in two branches and has completed the course in one of them and pursuing it in the other. He argued that a person cannot be stopped from pursuing his studies.

Delhi government’s standing counsel Rahul Mehra opposed the parole plea, saying Singh was seeking parole to write the LLM exam and also attend the wedding of his brother-in-law in Bihar but he had sought parole on same grounds earlier also.

Mehra too pointed out that LLM is a two-year programme and the convict cannot be permitted to avail parole repeatedly to pursue the course.

The court had earlier sought response of the state on Singh’s plea seeking the relief.