New Delhi: A Delhi court Friday stayed the execution warrant issued against all the four convicts of the 16 December gang-rape and murder case, and they will now not be hanged Saturday.
Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana ordered the stay on the execution order, issued on 17 January, stating: “Courts of this country cannot afford to adversely discriminate any convict including death row convict, in pursuit of his legal remedies, by turning a Nelson’s eye towards him.”
The four convicts are Vinay Sharma (26), Mukesh Kumar (32), Akshay Kumar Singh (31) and Pawan Gupta (25).
All of them had approached the court where they argued that since Akshay is yet to file his mercy petition, Pawan is yet to file both his curative and mercy pleas and Vinay’s mercy plea is still awaiting the President’s reply, any execution taking place Saturday would be against the rules of the Delhi Jail Manual.
Rule 836 of the Delhi Prison Manual states, “If the sentence of death has been passed on more than one person in the same case, and if an appeal or an application is made by or on behalf of only one or more but not all of them, the execution of the sentence shall be postponed in the case of all such persons…”
The Tihar jail authorities argued that word “application” was used in the Delhi Prison Rules 836 and that applications do not mean petitions.
However, the Delhi court ruled: “Application is a generic term and includes petition also. Petition is in fact a formal written application.”
The court also categorically noted how Vinay’s mercy plea is pending with the President and how the Delhi Jail Manual prohibits any execution until the plea is answered.
“Seeking redressal of grievance through procedure established by law is hallmark for any civilised society,” the court noted, staying the black warrant.
Black warrant or death warrant proceedings take place after the person on death row has exhausted all legal remedies available to a convict, according to the law.
Also read: Gym instructor, fruitseller, bus driver — the 6 men convicted in Nirbhaya gangrape-murder
SC dismisses Pawan Gupta’s juvenile review plea
The top court dismissed the review plea. Now Pawan is left with the options of filing curative and mercy petitions.
On 20 January, the Supreme Court rejected a plea by Pawan, challenging the Delhi High Court’s order dismissing his claim to be a juvenile at the time of the crime.
As of now, only Mukesh has exhausted all his legal remedies, including the clemency plea, which was dismissed by President Ram Nath Kovind on 17 January and the appeal against the rejection was also dismissed by the Supreme Court on 29 January.
Convict Akshay’s curative petition was dismissed by the top court on 30 January and Vinay’s mercy plea, filed on 29 January, is pending.
A 23-year-old paramedic student was gang-raped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of 16-17 December 2012 in a moving bus in south Delhi by six men before she was thrown out on the road.
Of the six, accused Ram Singh allegedly committed suicide in Tihar jail in 2013 and the other accused, a juvenile, was convicted by the Juvenile Justice Board and released in 2017 from a reformation home after serving a three-year term.
Also read: How 16 December gang-rape convicts are making last-ditch attempts to escape the noose
He is corrupt and incompetent person for the post. Worst kind of sadistic behavior in recent years. History will remember him as tyrant who made mockery of judiciary for silly milage with so called human rights activisam and false protection of social justice He may be paid for his karma.
This is a false argument advanced by the judge. Three of the convicts have exhausted their appeals while the fourth one hasn’t. How is this discrimination? The courts are always complaining about the “non-application of the mind”. But they seem to leave their brains at home when they come for to their job.