December 16 case hangings deferred again

NEW DELHI: A court in Delhi on Monday put on hold till further orders the hangings of four people found guilty of gang-raping and murdering a young paramedical student in 2012, ordering the third such deferment in a keenly watched case after one of the convicts said he was yet to exhaust the legal remedies available to him.

Additional sessions judge Dharmender Rana said the execution, which was scheduled for 6am on Tuesday, cannot be carried out till the disposal of mercy petition of convict Pawan Gupta, who approached the President soon after the Supreme Court rejected his curative plea earlier in the day.

Though the judge said convicts should be allowed to exhaust all legal options before the execution of a black warrant, he pulled up Pawan’s counsel at the same time for delay in filing appeals to avail remedies.

“Despite stiff resistance from the victim’s side, I am of the opinion that any condemned convict must meet his creator with a grievance in his bosom that the courts of this country has not acted fairly in granting him an opportunity to exhaust his legal remedies.

“...I am of the opinion that the death sentence cannot be executed pending the disposal of the mercy petition of the convict. It is hereby directed that the execution of death warrants against all convicts, scheduled for March 3 at 6am, is deferred till further orders,” Rana said.

Pawan, 25, was the last of the four convicts to file a curative petition before the Supreme Court (on Friday) and a mercy plea before the President (on Monday).

Curative and mercy pleas by co-accused Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31) have already been rejected.

While a curative petition is considered the last judicial resort for redressal of grievances, a mercy plea is the last legal remedy for a litigant.

The Union home ministry received Pawan’’s mercy plea and will forward it to President Ram Nath Kovind, news agency PTI quoted unnamed officials as saying on Monday. Later in the day, the Delhi government’s home department recommended for rejection of Pawan’s mercy petition.

A fresh date for the execution is unlikely to be set till the disposal of Pawan’s mercy plea. For the Supreme Court, in its 2014 judgment in the Shatrughan Chauhan v Union of India case, stipulated that there should be a 14-day gap between the rejection of mercy plea by the President and the date of execution.

CONVICT PAWAN GUPTA APPROACHED THE PRESIDENT SOON AFTER THE SUPREME COURT REJECTED HIS CURATIVE PETITION