NO LAW FOR SIMULTANEOUS EXECUTION: CENTRE TO SC

NEW DELHI: The Centre and the Delhi governments on Thursday submitted before the Supreme Court that law does not mandate that all death row convicts in a given case should be executed simultaneously. They also argued that there is no legal impediment to execute death row convicts who have exhausted their legal remedies though co-convicts who have been sentenced in the same case have not availed all their options.

The submission was made while challenging a Delhi High Court order, in which it had refused to interfere with the postponement of execution of the four death row convicts in the 2012 Delhi gang rape case. Centre’s law officer, additional solicitor general KM Nataraj mentioned the matter on Thursday before justice NV Ramana for an early hearing.

The judge agreed to list the case on Friday.

The petition by the central and Delhi governments also pointed out that the Delhi prison rules do not mandate simultaneous execution of co-convicts and a convict who has exhausted all his remedies cannot frustrate the mandate of law merely because the mercy petition of one of the co-convict is pending before the President and another co-convict has chosen not to even file the mercy petition.

The Delhi High Court had turned down a request to hang at least two of the four convicts who have exhausted all their legal options. In its judgment, the high court had cited a Supreme Court verdict in an “unfortunate” case where after one convict was executed, the co-accused’s death sentence was commuted to life.