Dec 16 rape
had already considered the mitigating and aggravating circumstances while upholding the death penalty.
As soon as the bench pronounced the verdict, advocate AP Singh, appearing for convict Akshay, sought three weeks to file mercy petition before the President.
Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Delhi government, told the bench that one week is prescribed under the law for filing a mercy petition.
“We are not expressing our view in this regard. If as per the law any time is available to the petitioner, it is for the petitioner to avail the remedy of filing mercy petition within that stipulated time,” the bench said.
Meanwhile, at a Delhi court later on Wednesday, additional sessions judge Satish Kumar Arora, who had heard the Delhi Police push hard for the warrant to execute four convicts, said he wanted to wait for a mercy petition filed by one of the convicts to be decided before issuing the warrant.
“I am not going into these arguments. The fact of the matter is that a mercy petition is pending,” Arora ruled. He ordered Tihar jail officials to issue a fresh notice, informing the convicts about their legal remedies and put off the next hearing to January 7.
As the hearing commenced, the court was informed about apex court’s decision, dismissing Akshay’s review plea.
The court, however, said, “Let order of Supreme Court be officially communicated”.
As the judge was wrapping up the hearing, the gang rape victim’s mother broke down. “Do we not have any rights… wherever we go, we hear people talking about the rights of their (convicts)... What about ours,” she said.
The judge sought to console her, saying: “I have full sympathy with you. I know someone has died but there are their rights too. We are here to listen to you but are also bound by the law.”
“We have been coming to this place (Patiala House courts complex)... Everywhere we see that the system supports the convicts… It seems they, and not the government and the prosecution are supreme,” the paramedic student’s mother said, wiping away tears, outside the court.
The parents of the gang-rape victim had been pursuing the case in the lower court where they wanted the judge to expedite issuing a death warrant, officially called ‘Warrant of Execution of a Sentence of Death’.
The public prosecutor had asked judge Satish Kumar Arora to issue the warrant, asserting that the pendency of curative petitions or mercy petitions did not stand in the way.
Lawyer Vrinda Grover, who has been appointed as amicus curiae to represent one of the convicts Mukesh Singh, told the court that the death warrant should not be issued at this stage since they were yet to exhaust the available legal remedies.