  The strong coupling constants of light pseudoscalar mesons with spin--3/2 and
spin--1/2 heavy baryons are calculated in the framework of light cone QCD sum
rules. It is shown that each class of transitions among members of the sextet
spin--3/2 to sextet spin--1/2 baryons and that of the sextet spin--3/2 to
spin--1/2 anti--triplet baryons is described by only one invariant function. We
also estimate the widths of kinematically allowed transitions. Our results on
decay widths are in good agreement with the existing experimental data, as well
as predictions of other nonperturbative approaches.
