India, Feb. 4 -- The legal impasse over who should sentence Kashmiri separatist leader Aasiya Andrabi and her two associates has finally been resolved, with a Delhi court on Monday sending the case back to the judge who delivered the conviction for hearing arguments on punishment.

Special judge (NIA) Prashant Sharma of Patiala House Courts directed that the matter be placed before his predecessor, Chanderjit Singh, now posted as a district judge (family courts) at Karkardooma, holding that legal precedent barred him from hearing arguments on sentence in the case.

The order brings closure to an unusual procedural deadlock that emerged barely a week after the January 14 conviction of Andrabi -- founder of the banned women's separatist out...