Thursday, February 6, 2020

Centre moves SC in Nirbhaya case after HC rejects its plea
Plea to separately execute death sentences dismissed


06/02/2020, KRISHNADAS RAJAGOPAL,NEW DELHI

Nirbhaya’s mother outside the Delhi High Court on Wednesday.PTI

The Centre on Wednesday appealed to the Supreme Court within hours of the Delhi High Court’s rejection of its plea to separately execute the death sentence of the Nirbhaya gang-rape convicts.

The Centre had challenged a January 31, 2020 decision of the sessions court to postpone the issuance of fresh death warrants against the four convicts, especially Mukesh Kumar Singh, whose mercy petition had already been declined by the President on January 17.

The government has argued in the Supreme Court that under the Delhi Prison Rules of 2018 the pendency of legal remedies or mercy petitions of other co-convicts would have no bearing on the fate of a convict whose plea for mercy has already been rejected.

‘Miscarriage of justice’

The government has argued that the 2018 Rules does not prohibit the execution of death sentence of co-convicts, one by one, on the rejection of their respective mercy petitions.

Deferring the execution of death sentence of all the four convicts, specifically when Mukesh’s mercy plea has already been dismissed by the President, has led to “gross miscarriage of justice” to the victim’s family as well as the society as a whole, the government contended. The convicts, the Centre said, were taking the judicial process for a ride.

The High Court judgment, however, held that the 2018 Rules observe that pendency of any application filed by one convict would necessarily require the postponement of the death sentence of all his co-convicts, even those whose mercy plea had been rejected.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Passengers of an international flightdropped off at domestic terminal

Passengers of an international flight dropped off at domestic terminal The Hindu Bureau CHENNAI 3.01.2025 Passengers of an international fli...