Muzaffarnagar: Uttar Pradesh’s judicial system has taken a significant administrative step after nearly 100 serious criminal cases pending before Additional District and Sessions Judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar were transferred to another court.
Judge Diwakar, who is currently posted at a fast-track court in Muzaffarnagar, has sentenced 22 people to death in 10 separate cases over the past four months. The cases involved serious offences including murder, kidnapping and robbery.
According to government counsel, cases involving offences punishable by death or life imprisonment have been shifted from Judge Diwakar’s court to the court of District and Sessions Judge Virendra Kumar Singh. Reports indicate that around 97 pending case files were recalled.
The development comes amid growing attention over the unusually high number of capital punishment verdicts delivered by Judge Diwakar in a relatively short period. Muzaffarnagar District Bar Association president Pramod Tyagi said lawyers and litigants had concerns about the possibility of death sentences being awarded in pending cases.
Who Is Judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar?
Judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar, 46, has been serving as Additional District and Sessions Judge in Muzaffarnagar since November 2025.
He had earlier attracted nationwide attention in 2022 after ordering a videographic survey of the Gyanvapi complex in Varanasi.
A resident of Lucknow, Diwakar began his judicial career as an additional civil judge in Azamgarh in 2009. He later served as a civil judge in Sultanpur and as a judicial magistrate. He holds BCom and LLM degrees.
22 Death Sentences In Four Months
Between April and August 2026, Judge Diwakar’s court handed down death sentences in 10 cases involving multiple accused.
Among the recent cases, four people were sentenced to death on August 13 in connection with the 2014 murder of Pawan Kumar in Shamli. The court also imposed a fine of ₹1.70 lakh on the convicts.
A day earlier, on August 12, a man was awarded the death penalty for the kidnapping and murder of a wood trader in a ransom case dating back to 1999.
On July 17, four men were sentenced to death for the 2011 murder of a farmer during an alleged robbery attempt in Shamli.
Earlier, on July 6, a former village head and his associate were given the death penalty for the 2010 murder of a man following a dispute linked to panchayat elections. The court described the matter as falling under the “rarest of rare” category.
On July 2, Judge Diwakar sentenced a man to death for killing a home guard who was on duty. The court held that the circumstances of the crime warranted the maximum punishment.
Why Has The Transfer Drawn Attention?
The transfer of the pending cases comes shortly after Judge Diwakar’s series of death penalty verdicts brought renewed focus on the use of capital punishment and the “rarest of rare” principle in India.
Death sentences awarded by trial courts are not automatically carried out. They are subject to confirmation by the concerned High Court, and the accused have the right to challenge the verdict through the judicial process.
The transfer means that several pending serious criminal cases that were earlier before Judge Diwakar will now be heard by another court.
