Centre, Delhi govt move SC against HC verdict
DEC 2012 GANG RAPE HC says all 4 convicts in the case have to be executed together
NEW DELHI: The Centre and the Delhi government moved the Supreme Court Wednesday challenging the rejection of their plea by the Delhi high court against the trial court order staying the execution of four death-row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case.
Hours after the high court’s verdict, the Centre and the Delhi government filed an appeal against it in the apex court.
The high court said all the four convicts in the Nirbhaya case have to be executed together, not separately, and faulted the authorities concerned for not taking steps for issuance of death warrant after rejection of appeals of the convicts by the Supreme Court in 2017.
The trial court had on January 31 stayed “till further orders” execution of the four convicts in the case -- Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31), who are lodged in Tihar Jail.
A lawyer associated with the matter said the grounds taken for challenge in the top court are almost same as taken in the high court while filing the appeal against the trial court order.
He said that since the copy of the high court verdict is awaited, the Centre and the Delhi government preferred not to wait anymore and have stated in the petition in the apex court that the convicts can be hanged separately as Mukesh has exhausted all his remedies, including the mercy plea. The Delhi government had sought warrants for execution of death sentence to the four convicts on December 18, 2019.
Justice Suresh Kumar Kait directed the convicts to exhaust within seven days all the remedies available to them after which the authorities should act as per law. The HC however said: “It cannot be disputed that the convicts have frustrated the process by using delaying tactics.”
The parents of the victim had urged the court to expeditiously decide the Centre’s plea and were assured by the judge that the order would be passed at the earliest. The trial court had on January 7 issued black warrants for the execution of all the four convicts in Tihar jail at 7am on January 22. However, they could not be hanged due to pendency of mercy petition of one of them.
On January 17, the trial court fixed February 1, 6 am as the hanging date and time.
While the mercy pleas of Mukesh and Vinay have been rejected by the President, Pawan has not yet filed it. Akshay’s mercy plea was filed on February 1 and is pending.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing them, had contended that it was a deliberate and calculated design of the convicts to “frustrate mandate of law” by getting their execution delayed and they were not entitled to any more time.
The counsel for the convicts opposed the plea saying it was not maintainable and that the Centre was never a party in the case proceedings before the trial court and while the government was accusing the convict of delay, it has woken up only now.