India, July 22 -- Stressing that the constitutional guarantee of a fair trial is "absolutely non-negotiable" even in prosecutions involving terrorism and mass casualties, the Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside the conviction and death sentence of Abdul Hameed in the 1996 Samleti bus bomb blast case, holding that a conviction carrying capital punishment cannot rest on proceedings where the accused was effectively left to defend himself without legal representation.

Fourteen people were killed and 37 injured in the blast on a bus on the Jaipur-Agra Highway on May 22, 1996. The blast came a day after the Lajpat Nagar bomb blast in Delhi, in which 13 people were killed. The Supreme Court judgment leaves the case without any convicted accused...