Delhi High Court on Wednesday gave one week’s time to the four death-row convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case to exhaust all the legal remedies available to them. After that, the authorities would act according to the verdicts given.
The order came after the court heard the Centre’s plea against a January 31 order of a trial court that said that the pendency of execution of a death row convict will stay the execution of other convicts awarded with death sentence through the same order.
Although the high court didn’t agree with the trial court’s order, it also did not set aside the order. The high court ruled that according to the Delhi Prison Rules, the postponement of an execution order can be done when dealing with legal proceedings that include appeals (but not mercy petitions). It also said that the delay was not permissible if it was done intentionally as in this case. The judge cited the number of days that the convicts had waited to file their review petitions.
Appearing for the state, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that the nation will lose its faith on the judicial system if such a delay is committed in the process. He also argued that such delays are what pushes people to speak for encounter killings.
Six persons were arrested and charged with rape and murder of a 23-year-old medical student in Delhi in 2012, which came to be known as the Nirbhaya case. One of the accused was a minor and was tried in the juvenile justice court. He was released after three years. Another accused – Ram Singh – had allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail.
The execution of the convicts has been delayed repeatedly as they kept filing petitions – part of the legal remedies available to them.
Many social workers against death sentence had written to the President of India to stop the hanging, urging the government focus on reforming the convicts instead.
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