The government’s declaration came as Mukesh, one of the four convicts in the case, on Tuesday moved the Delhi High Court challenging the death warrant issued against him.
The Delhi government on Wednesday told the High Court that execution of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case cannot take place on January 22 as a mercy plea has been filed by one of them.
The four convicts — Vinay Sharma (26), Mukesh Kumar (32), Akshay Kumar Singh (31) and Pawan Gupta (25) — were to be hanged at 7 am on January 22.
However, the government’s declaration came as Mukesh, one of the four convicts in the case, on Tuesday moved the Delhi High Court challenging the death warrant issued against him.
The plea sought for directions for setting aside the trial court order and not to give effect to the order for execution of death sentence on January 22.
Justices Manmohan and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal were told by the Delhi government and the Centre that the petition filed by convict Mukesh, challenging his death warrant, was premature.
The Delhi government and the prison authorities informed the court that under the rules, it will have to wait for the mercy plea to be decided before executing the death warrant.
They also said that none of the four convicts can be executed on January 22 unless the present mercy plea is decided.
The Supreme Court had earlier on Tuesday dismissed the curative petitions of two of the four convicts, on death row, in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case.
A five-judge bench comprising Justices NV Ramana, Arun Mishra, Rohinton Fali Nariman, R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan had heard the curative petitions filed by Vinay Sharma and Mukesh, who moved the apex court on January 9.
Delhi’s Patiala House Court had on January 7 issued death warrants against all the four convicts in the 2012 case.
While issuing death warrants, the trial court observed that “despite being afforded sufficient time and opportunity”, the convicts didn’t exercise their legal remedies.
The Supreme Court has already confirmed death penalty for all the four convicts. The court found no merit in conducting the review and upheld the capital punishment given by the trial court and confirmed by the Delhi High Court in the case.
One of the accused in the case, Ram Singh, had allegedly committed suicide at Tihar Jail in Delhi.
A juvenile, who was among the accused, was convicted by a juvenile justice board. He was released from a reformation home after serving a three-year term.
A 23-year-old paramedic student, who came to be known as Nirbhaya, was gang-raped on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a running bus in south Delhi by six persons and severely assaulted before being thrown out on the road. She succumbed to injuries on December 29 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.
Source: thestatesman.com, Staff, January 15, 2020
Nirbhaya case: Convicts can’t be hanged on Jan 22 as mercy plea pending, Delhi govt tells HC
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Wednesday refused to set aside the trial court’s order issuing death warrants to the convicts in the 2012 Delhi gangrape case.
The Delhi government had informed the High Court that the four death row convicts cannot be hanged on January 22 as one of the convicts has filed a mercy plea that is pending before President Ram Nath Kovind for consideration. The court has asked Mukesh’s counsel to approach trial court and apprise it about the pending mercy plea.
Mukesh approached the Delhi High Court for quashing of the death warrant. The petition, filed through advocate Vrinda Grover, sought setting aside of the trial court’s order issuing the warrant of execution and direction to authorities to “scrupulously follow timeframes as prescribed by law, rules, and the Supreme Court”. The plea also stated that the convict cannot be executed during the pendency of his mercy petitions before the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi and the President. His lawyers have informed the court they will move sessions court against death warrant.
Justices Manmohan and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal were told by the Delhi government and the Centre that the petition filed by convict Mukesh, challenging his death warrant, was premature. The Delhi government and the prison authorities informed the court that under the rules, it will have to wait for the mercy plea to be decided before executing the death warrant.
The Delhi High Court expressed displeasure over the manner in which the convicts exploited the government machinery and filed the mercy petition only when a death warrant was issued against them. The accused were convicted and sentenced to death in September 2013. The conviction and sentencing were upheld by both the High Court and Supreme Court.
Mercy plea is the only legal option left before the convicts after the Supreme Court rejected curative petitions of Vinay Sharma and Mukesh. In a separate ruling, the Supreme Court had also dismissed a review petition filed by another convict Akshay Singh, to review its earlier order that confirmed the death penalty in the case.
The 23-year-old paramedic student was gangraped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a moving bus in south Delhi by six persons before being thrown out on the road. She died on December 29, 2012, at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.
In September 2013, a fast-track court held the four convicts guilty of 13 offences including gangrape, unnatural sexual assault and murder of the woman, and attempt to murder her male friend. A fifth accused, Ram, hanged himself in his cell in Tihar, while the sixth, who was a juvenile at the time of the crime, was sent to a reform facility.
Source:
dbpost.com, Staff, January 15, 2020
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
