I B Singh, a senior lawyer who is fighting the case on behalf of the Manjunath Shanmugam Trust, said the hearing was postponed after the defence lawyer informed the court that a retired judge of the Delhi High Court, S K Agrawal, would argue the case of the convicts.

“The court wanted to know as to when the retired judge would arrive to argue the case. The defence would communicate the same to the court tomorrow,” Singh said.

In March 2007, the Lakhmipur District and Session court had convicted eight persons for murdering the IOC sales officer after the victim had blown the lid off on an adulteration racket. The convicts then approached the High Court for relief.

The lower court had awarded death sentence to Pawan Kumar alias Monu and the other seven convicts were given life imprisonment.

Besides Monu, who is the son of a petrol pump owner, the other convicted persons in the case are Devesh Agnihotri, Sanjay Awasthi, Rakesh Aanand, Shivkesh Giri, Harish Mishra and Vivek Sharma.