SC clears way for execution of Vinay
Dismisses petition against rejection of mercy plea
New Delhi, Feb. 14: Clearing the way for execution of Vinay Sharma, one of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, the Supreme Court on Friday dismissed his plea against the rejection of his mercy petition by the President.
The top court refused to accept Sharma’s contention that the President did not apply his mind while rejecting the mercy plea and it was done in a “mala fide” manner.
“When the highest constitutional authority, upon perusal of the note and the various documents placed along with mercy petition, has taken a decision to reject the mercy petition, it cannot be contended that the highest constitutional authority had not applied its mind to the documents,” it said.
A bench of Justices R Banumathi, Ashok Bhushan and A S Bopanna said, “In the result, we do not find any ground for exercise of judicial review of the order of the President of India rejecting the petitioner’s mercy petition and this writ petition is liable to be dismissed. The writ petition is dismissed accordingly.”
The apex court had earlier dismissed a similar plea filed by another death row convict in the case, Mukesh Kumar Singh (32). The mercy petition by the third convict —Akshay Kumar (31) — has also been rejected, but he is yet to challenge the rejection.
The fourth convict Pawan Gupta (25) is yet to exhaust his legal remedies such as filing curative petition — the last legal remedy available to person and the mercy plea.
The top court on Friday dealt with various grounds raised by Sharma (26) through his advocate A P Singh including that all relevant records were not placed before the President by the authorities.
The bench said the Delhi government had forwarded Sharma’s mercy petition to MHA on January 30 along with the necessary documents which included recommendation of NCT of Delhi, copies of judgments, case records, latest medical report of the prisoner, present status of pending petition and others.
“Before placing the note file before the President, the MHA had placed the matter before the Union home minister, who applied his mind and by a speaking order, recommended for rejection of the mercy petition,” it said.