New Delhi: A Delhi court Friday dismissed Tihar jail authorities’ plea seeking fresh date for execution of the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case.
Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana took note of the Delhi high court’s February 5 order permitting the convicts to exercise their legal remedies within one week.
“It is criminally sinful to execute the convicts when the law permits them to live. The high court on February 5 has permitted the convicts, in the interest of justice, to exercise their legal remedies within one week from the same order,” the court said.
“I concur with counsel for convicts that death warrants cannot be executed merely on the basis of surmises and conjectures. The application is bereft of merit. The same is dismissed. The state has the liberty to move appropriate application as and when required,” the judge said.
The trial court had on January 31 stayed “till further orders” execution of the four convicts in the case – Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31), who is lodged in Tihar Jail.
In the application, the authorities said the President has already dismissed the mercy petitions of three convicts and that no application by any of the four is currently pending before any court.
Also read: Nirbhaya Case: SC to Hear Centre’s Appeal Challenging HC Verdict
Pawan has not yet filed a curative petition – the last and final legal remedy available to a person which is decided in-chamber. Pawan also has the option of filing a mercy plea.
The authorities had also informed the court about Delhi high court’s February 5 order which directed the convicts to take steps within a week, if they wished, to avail any remedy available under the law.
“It is, therefore, most respectfully prayed that keeping in view a week’s time given to the convicts by high court, the fresh dates for execution of death warrants…may kindly be fixed specifying the date and time for execution/hanging of convicts Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma, Mukesh and Akshay in the interest of justice,” the application had said.
The warrants, issued by the trial court on January 7, were later postponed “sine die” by it on January 31, giving the condemned prisoners a reprieve for the second time in two weeks.
The date of execution, first fixed for January 22 in Tihar jail, was later postponed for 6 am on February 1 by a January 17 court order.
SC to hear Centre’s plea on Feb 11 against Delhi HC verdict
The Supreme Court on Friday said it will hear the Centre’s plea challenging the Delhi High Court’s verdict, on February 11, that had dismissed its petition against the stay on the execution of the four Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case convicts.
A bench headed by Justice R Bhanumathi did not heed to Solicitor General Tushar Mehta’s request to issue notices to the convicts on the Centre’s plea and said it would further delay the matter.
The bench, also comprising justices Ashok Bhushan and A.S. Bopanna told Mehta that it would hear him on February 11 and it may consider whether notice was required to be issued to the convicts.
At the outset, Mehta told the court that the “nation’s patience is being tested” in the matter and the bench will have to lay down a law on the issue.
Mehta told the bench that one of the convicts Mukesh Kumar Singh has exhausted all his remedies, including mercy plea and the challenge to its rejection in the apex court.
The mercy pleas of Akshay Kumar and Vinay Kumar Sharma have already been dismissed, he said, adding that the fourth convict Pawan Gupta has neither filed a curative petition nor a mercy plea.
Nirbhaya’s mother has been vocal about the importance of justice in her daughter’s case. Photo: PTI
“Pawan has chosen not to file a curative or a mercy petition. The question is, is the authority required to wait endlessly,” Mehta told the bench.
To this, the bench said, “No one can be compelled to take remedies.”
Mehta said, in this case, there may be a situation where one convict “sits tight for five years” and the others then approach the apex court seeking commutation of the death penalty on the ground of delay in execution.
“The high court has granted them (convicts) one week time to avail all their remedies. This amply protects you,” the bench said.
Mehta said the bench will have to lay down the law on whether the convicts in the same case can be hanged separately or not.
When the bench said it would hear the matter on February 11, he requested the court to issue a notice to the four death row convicts.
“Let them come to this court on Monday and say what they intend to do,” Mehta said.
“Issuance of notice will not harm them. The high court had also issued notices to them. The court can have the benefit of their assistance on the issue. As an institution we are answerable to the society,” he said.
To this, the bench said issuing notices to the convicts at this stage will further delay the matter.
“We want to hear you on merits,” the bench told Mehta and said it may consider this aspect on the next date of hearing.
The Centre, through its Additional Solicitor General K.M. Natraj, had moved the top court seeking an urgent hearing on its appeal assailing the verdict which held on Wednesday that the death row convicts have to be executed together and not separately.
Natraj had told the court that jail authorities are unable to execute the convicts in the case despite the fact that their review petitions have been dismissed and curative petitions and mercy pleas of three of them have been rejected.
The high court set a week’s deadline for them to avail of the remaining remedies.
If the convicts choose not to make any type of petition in seven days from now, the institutions and authorities concerned will deal with the matter, as per the law, without further delay, it had said.
Also read: Death Sentence as ‘Collective Conscience’ Is a Fraud Upon Justice
Meanwhile, the trial court will hear a plea of Tihar jail authorities seeking issuance of fresh death warrants against the convicts on Friday.
The trial court had on January 31 stayed “till further orders” execution of the four convicts in the case – Mukesh (32), Pawan (25), Vinay (26) and Akshay (31), who is lodged in Tihar Jail.
Later, the Centre moved the high court against the stay on the execution of the convicts. Hours after the high court’s verdict, the Centre filed an appeal against it in the apex court.
The high court faulted the authorities concerned for not taking steps for issuance of death warrants after the rejection of appeals of the convicts by the Supreme Court in 2017.
A lawyer associated with the matter had said the grounds taken for the challenge in the top court are almost the same as taken in the high court while filing the appeal against the trial court order.
He had said the Centre has stated in the petition in the apex court that the convicts can be hanged separately as Mukesh has exhausted all his remedies, including the mercy plea.
The 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who came to be known as ‘Nirbhaya’ (fearless), was gang-raped and savagely assaulted on the night of December 16, 2012, in a moving bus in South Delhi. She died of her injuries a fortnight later in a Singapore hospital.
Six people including the four convicts, Ram Singh, and a juvenile – were named as accused. The trial of the five adult men began in a special fast-track court in March 2013.
Ram Singh, the prime accused, allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in Tihar jail days after the trial began. The juvenile, who was said to be the most brutal of the attackers, was put in a correctional home for three years.
The juvenile was released in 2015 and sent to an undisclosed location amid concerns over a threat to his life. He, when released, was 20 years old.
Mukesh, Vinay, Akshay, and Pawan were sentenced to death in September 2013 by the trial court.
