SC rejects convicts’ last-ditch attempts to escape gallows
A CURATIVE PETITION IS THE LAST JUDICIAL RESORT AVAILABLE TO A LITIGANT FOR REDRESSAL OF
THEIR GRIEVANCES
nNEW DELHI: At least three petitions filed by the December 16 gang rape convicts were rejected by the Supreme Court a day before their hanging.
The apex court, on Thursday, dismissed the curative petition filed by Pawan Gupta (25) against a January 20 judgment of the top court, which had dismissed his claim of juvenility.
A six-judge bench, headed by Justice NV Ramana, turned down Gupta’s plea and his request for oral hearing of the petition.
“The application for oral hearing is rejected. We have gone through the curative petition and the relevant documents. In our opinion, no case is made out within the parameters indicated in the decision of this court in Rupa Ashok Hurra vs. Ashok Hurra & Another, reported in 2002 (4) SCC 388. Hence, the Curative Petition is dismissed,” the order said.
A curative petition is the last judicial resort available to a litigant for redressal of grievances. It is a remedy established by the Supreme Court through its judgment in the Rupa Asok Hurra v Ashok Hurra case and is decided by the judges in-chamber.
The apex court bench, headed by Justice R Banumathi, had, on January 20, dismissed Gupta’s petition in which he had claimed that he was a juvenile at the time of commission of offence in December 2012.
A review petition against the January 20 judgment was again dismissed on January 31.
Earlier, on December 19, 2019, the Delhi high court had rejected this claim by Gupta, after which he moved the Supreme Court in appeal for the same.
In its January 20 judgment, the SC noted that Gupta had raised the plea of juvenility earlier as well during the trial and, in subsequent appeals, before the Delhi high court and the Supreme Court.
Gupta’s claim of juvenility was rejected by the Metropolitan Magistrate in 2013, Delhi high court in 2014 and the Supreme Court in 2018.
Despite this, he had filed fresh plea before the Delhi high court in 2019 on the same ground.
The Supreme Court had, on January 20, said that though, as per the Juvenile Justice Act, a plea regarding the age of accused can be raised at any stage of the case, it cannot be raised repeatedly after it was rejected once.
Two other petitions, one filed by Akshay Thakur (31) and the other by Mukesh Singh (32), were also dismissed by the top court on Thursday.
Akshay, in his plea, had challenged the rejection of his mercy petition by the President arguing that there was non-application of mind by the President while deciding his mercy plea.
The court turned down the argument holding there was no ground to entertain the plea.
Mukesh’s petition stating that there was no proper consideration of evidence by the courts during the trial was also rejected by the apex court.
“The petitioner was afforded sufficient opportunity and after consideration of the evidence, the petitioner has been convicted,” the top court said.