HC gives Dec 16 convicts 7 days to file final appeals
Delhi High Court rejects Centre’s plea to execute two of the four convicts who have exhausted legal options; President rejects mercy plea of third convict
NEW DELHI : Holding that the four December 16 gang rape and murder convicts have to be hanged together, the Delhi high court on Wednesday set a seven-day deadline for them to avail remaining remedies but refused to stay a trial court order indefinitely postponing their execution.
The Centre and the Delhi government moved the Supreme Court challenging the rejection of their plea against the January 31 order staying “till further orders” the execution of all four.
Hours later, officials said President Ram Nath Kovind has rejected the mercy petition of Akshay Kumar Singh, a deathrow convict in the case.
NEW DELHI: On a day when the Delhi High Court ruled that the four convicts in the December 16 gang rape case cannot be hanged separately, President Ram Nath Kovind rejected the mercy plea of Akshay Singh Thakur, one of the convicts in the case.
Singh had filed the mercy petition a few days ago. The President has already rejected the clemency petition of two other convicts in the case Mukesh Singh and Vinay Kumar Sharma. The fourth convict, Pawan Gupta, is yet to file a mercy plea.
The Centre had sought to hang at least two convicts who have exhausted all legal remedies available to them -review plea, curative petition and the mercy plea before the President. As on Wednesday, three of the four convicts’ legal options stood exhausted. Pawan is yet to file a curative plea and seek mercy from the President.
Within hours of the high court ruling, the central and Delhi governments approached the Supreme Court challenging the verdict. The Supreme Court website indicated that the plea has defects which need to be cured.
The four men -- Mukesh Singh, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma -- are on death row for the gang rape and brutal assault of a 23-yearold physiotherapy student inside a moving bus on December 16, 2012.
After the high court’s verdict, the woman’s mother, Asha Devi said she was grateful to the Centre for moving the Delhi High Court and pressing for an urgent hearing. “I am satisfied but I will be happy only on the day when the convicts will be hanged. The court has given them a week’s time, we will wait till then,” she said.
Justice Suresh Kait gave seven days to the convicts to file any petition before any institution/authorities available under the law. The court also said that if the convicts failed to file the pleas in one week, it is expected
TUSHAR MEHTA, solicitor general
› Even thereafter, all authorities concerned were sleeping and waited till Akshay Kumar Singh filed a plea with 950 days delay, on December 10, 2019 and the same was dismissed on December 18, 2019…However, the convicts are taking shelter of the Article 21 of the Constitution which is available to them till their last breath
from the authorities to deal as per law.
“..... it is clear that if the appeal or application is pending of one of the convicts, the death sentence shall be postponed pending the order of the appeal/application but the sentence of all the convicts shall be postponed.……I am of the considered view that death warrants of all the convicts be executed together but not separately,” Justice Kait said in a 43-page judgment.
The high court’s order came on a plea by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) challenging an order of the trial court postponing the hanging of the convicts till further orders.
Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, for the MHA, had argued that the court had misinterpreted the Tihar prison rules that requires the court to defer execution of death row convicts if an appeal or an application is made on behalf of any one of them.
The court also said that “the convicts have adopted all the delay tactics to frustrate the warrants” by filing “untenable petitions” in the court.
The court also pulled up the authorities for the delay in the execution.
“I have no hesitation to say that after dismissal of criminal appeals on May 5, 2017 by the SC, nobody had bothered to execute the death warrants. They waited for the reasons best known to them, till convict Mukesh filed a review petition before the Supreme Court on November 6, 2017 after 186 days and the same was dismissed on July 9, 2018,” Justice Kait said.
“Even thereafter, all authorities concerned were sleeping and waited till Akshay Kumar Singh filed a plea with 950 days delay, on December 10, 2019 and the same was dismissed on December 18, 2019…However, the convicts are taking shelter of the Article 21 of the Indian constitution which is available to them till their last breath,” he added.
UNION LAW MINISTER ASSURES LOK SABHA
Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad informed the Lok Sabha on Wednesday that convicts in the December 16 gang rape case will soon be hanged.
The culprits are trying to delay punishment which is not justified, he said.
Several members, especially women members across party lines raised the issue of attack on women in various parts of the country.
“As far as their hanging is concerned, the Supreme Court has already sentenced them to death. We are very strict... justice will be given to her. Convicts will be hanged soon,” he said.