The Supreme Court on Monday stayed till further orders the death sentence of former Delhi Pradesh Youth Congress president Sushil Sharma, who was awarded capital punishment by the trial court in the Naina Sahni murder case.

A bench comprising Justices S B Sinha and Markandey Katju also issued a notice to the Delhi government.

Sharma, whose death sentence was confirmed by the Delhi High Court after dismissing his appeal, had appealed in the Supreme Court against the high court order.

Sharma was arrested in 1995 from Bangalore for killing his wife Naina Sahni at their Gole Market residence. Sharma later tried to dispose of her body by burning it in a tandoor (clay oven) in the kitchen of his Bagicha restaurant located on the premises of Ashok Yatri Niwas Hotel.

Sharma and his manager Keshav were convicted for the offence of murder and destruction of evidence respectively.

In his petition, Sharma has challenged the high court judgment on the grounds that the evidence in the case has not been properly appreciated both by the trial court as well as the high court and he was entitled to acquittal as the prosecution has not been able to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.

The chain of events is also not complete and there is no evidence to connect him to the offence, the petition said.

He also contended that the case did not fall in the category of the rarest of rare and hence capital punishment was not at all justified.

Sharma had killed Naina Sahni, also a youth Congress activist, following suspicion of infidelity on her part.