SC stays death warrant in Gujarat rape-murder case
2018 CASE Court accepts convict plea that warrant was issued before he had exhausted all legal remedies
NEWDELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the hanging of a man convicted and sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a three-year-old girl in Surat, Gujarat, accepting the convict’s argument that the black warrants for the execution had been issued before he had exhausted his legal remedies.
Anil Surendrasingh Yadav was sentenced to death by a special court in July 2019 under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, or POCSO.
“Until further orders, there shall be a stay of executing the sentence of death against the petitioner,” the SC ruled.
According to the prosecution, Yadav who was staying in a room situated on the ground floor of a house had, in October 2018, kidnapped the child staying with her family on the first floor of the same house. Yadav took the girl to his room, raped her and killed her by throttling her. He then put the body of the girl in a gunny bag, locked the room from outside and ran away. The body was later discovered by the police in a decayed and decomposed condition.
The Gujarat high court had upheld the conviction and death sentence of Yadav in December 2019.
Subsequently, the district court had, in January, issued a warrant for Yadav’s hanging on February 29.
Yadav challenged the high court judgment in Supreme Court and sought a stay on the execution. Advocate Aparajita Singh, appearing for Yadav, pointed out that the district court issued a black warrant before the expiry of 60 days, the period mandated by the Supreme Court to appeal against HC judgments.
Singh cited the 2015 judgment of the Supreme Court in the Shabnam v. Union of India case in which the apex court had ruled that a death sentence cannot be executed in an arbitrary, hurried and secret manner without allowing convicts to exhaust all their legal remedies.
Chief Justice of India SA Bobde concurred with the argument made by Singh. He expressed surprise at the manner in which the trial court had gone about issuing a death warrant before the convict could exhaust his legal remedies. The CJI asked solicitor general Tushar Mehta, who was present in court, in another case to look into the matter
“How are black warrants issued before the period of limitation is exhausted? How can judicial process go on like this”, the CJI asked.
Delays in the execution of death penalty convicts has been a subject of intense debate in the past few weeks after the hanging of the four convicts in the 2012 Delhi gang rape-and-murder case was postponed twice because the convicts hadn’t exhausted their legal remedies.
This prompted the central government to approach the SC, seeking guidelines to ensure timely execution of death row convicts. The SC issued directions on February 12 in a bid to expedite the hearings in death penalty cases.
The court, in its office order, said that it will list for hearing appeals from high courts challenging death penalty sentences within six months of the date on which the matter is admitted for hearing.
Such appeals will be listed before three-judge bench irrespective of whether all documents and records relating to the case have been filed or not.
The order stated that as soon as an appeal involving the death penalty is filed, a communication will be sent to the concerned high court by the Supreme Court registry calling for the original records of the case within 60 days. This includes translation of documents which are in a vernacular language.