Presidential mercy Dec 16 killers’ final plea before gallows

Top court rejects curative pleas; one convict files mercy petition with President Kovind

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the curative petitions filed by two of the four convicts in the December 16, 2012 Delhi gang-rape and murder case — Mukesh and Vinay Sharma — challenging the May 2017 judgment of the court that had upheld their conviction and death sentence.

“No case is made out within the parameters indicated in the decision of this court in Rupa Ashok Hurra v Ashok Hurra case. Hence, the curative petitions are dismissed,” the fivejudge bench, which decided the curative petition, stated in its order.

A curative petition is the last judicial resort available to redress grievances. It is a remedy established by the Supreme Court through its judgment in Rupa Ashok Hurra v Ashok Hurra and is decided by the judges in-chamber.

Immediately after the rejection of the curative petition, Mukesh filed his mercy plea before the President.

He also moved the Delhi high court challenging the decision of issuance of the death warrant by the additional sessions judge, stating that his mercy petition was pending before the President. The plea filed through advocate Vrinda Grover also sought that her client be given a

minimum of 14 days’ notice if the mercy petition is rejected by the President so as to prepare for his departure from the world.

The additional sessions judge, Patiala House, had on January 7 issued a death warrant against four convicts in the 2012 case -- Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Singh -- and they are scheduled to be executed at 7am on January 22 in the Tihar jail premises.

This left the convicts with two weeks’ time to file the curative and mercy petitions.

In December 2012, five men

and one juvenile had raped and brutalised a young paramedical student in a moving bus in Delhi, triggering a wave of nationwide outrage. The victim later died from the injuries received. One of the accused committed suicide in Tihar jail during the trial while the juvenile accused was sent to a reform home and released three years later.

The four remaining accused were convicted and sentenced to death by the trial court in 2013. The conviction and sentence were confirmed by the Delhi high court in 2014 and the Supreme Court in May 2017.