In Brief
A death row convict challenged the Supreme Court's decision limiting open court hearings in review petitions to cases where curative petitions had not been dismissed. The petitioner's curative petition was dismissed by circulation, which disqualified him from the open court hearing relief. The Court held that a curative petition's limited scope—addressing only natural justice violations or judicial bias—does not address case merits. Therefore, dismissal of a curative petition should not deny open court hearing in the underlying review petition. The Court allowed the review petition, permitting the petitioner to seek reopening of the review petition dismissal for oral hearing within one month and to raise additional grounds.
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