The Madras High court on Tuesday halted the death penalty for the convict, who was accused of murdering minor siblings in Coimbatore, by granting an interim stay on his petition seeking time to table a mercy petition to the state Governor.

The directive was pronounced by the state's top judicial body after convict Manoharan has moved to the high court bench by stating that he wasn't granted enough time to reach out to the Governor to file his mercy petition. His counsel has termed the death penalty illegal and argued that his petitioner has legal options in seeking mercy. 

In October 2010, Manoharan and his friend Mohanakrishnan allegedly kidnapped a 10-year-old girl and her 7-year-old brother and after they abducted the minors, the accused raped the girl and tortured the boy before murdering them by inundating them in the Parambikulam Aliyar Project canal on October 29th. The police department had recovered the body in the canal and detained the accused two days later. Of the two, Mohankrishnan was encountered and killed by the police department on November 9th, 2010 after he attempted to attack the police officials who escorted him to the crime scene.

After proven guilty on committed the heinous crime, Manoharan was awarded the death penalty by Coimbatore Mahila court in 2012 after which he challenged the judgment in Madras High court where the high court upheld the verdict of Mahila court in confirming the death penalty. Manoharan appealed in the Supreme court to stay the judgment in 2014 and after reviewing his petition, the apex court had upheld the verdict of Madras High court in 2019. After which, Manoharan again tabled the review petition in the apex court that was taken into hearing in November.

On November 7th, a three justices bench of the apex court dismissed his review plea and the bench had noted the offense as the shocking, cold-blooded crime that will fall under the rarest rare category. With accord to the verdict of the Supreme court, the Mahila court had ordered that he must be hanged to death on December 2nd, 2019 but Manoharan again resumed his legal battle where he approached the high court and tabled his petition seeking  a stay and through his petition he claimed that he was not given with enough time to file a mercy petition with the Governor.

After hearing his petition, the Madras High court bench comprises of Justices Sundresh and Teekaa Raman has granted an interim stay to the death penalty and instructed the state government of Tamil Nadu to disclose its response in four weeks.