‘Hang death row convicts in seven days’

It is more important to lay down guidelines in the interest of the victims... lest the convicts... play with the majesty of law

NEW DELHI: Amid uncertainty over the execution of the four men sentenced to death for the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder of a paramedic student, the Centre on Wednesday approached the Supreme Court to introduce a 7-day deadline for death row convicts to file mercy petitions and for authorities to carry out the execution within seven days once the mercy plea has been rejected.

The government also wants the top court to introduce a time limit for filing of review and curative petitions.

MHA, in a notification to the Supreme Court

The Centre requested the top court to amend its 2014 verdict in the Shatrughan Chauhan case where it had taken a dim view of the executive keeping mercy petitions on hold for years and ruled that this wait for a torture for the convicts.

The top court had also taken a dim view of the secret executions by the state and ordered jail authorities to ensure that there was a 14-day gap between the rejection of their mercy pleas and their hanging. “Retribution has no constitutional value in our largest democratic country,” the judges had ruled.

In its application, the Union Home Ministry asked the apex court to mandate that convicts had to file a curative petition within a specified period and could only file a mercy petition within 7 days of the death warrant being issued.

It asked the Supreme Court to order all courts and state governments to issue death warrants within seven days of the President rejecting the mercy petitions and to execute them within seven days, irrespective of the status of any petition that the convict may file.

It is submitted that while taking care of the rights of the convicts, “it is more important and need of the hour to lay down guidelines in the interest of the victims”, the home ministry said, reasoning that otherwise the convicts would be permitted to “play with the majesty of law”.

The home ministry said the guidelines spelt out by t he Supreme Court in 2014 were