Nirbhaya case convicts execution: Supreme Court allows government to approach trial court for fresh date: by Sekar Reporter · February 11, 2020 [2/11, 19:21] Sekarreporter: Nirbhaya case convicts execution: Supreme Court allows government to approach trial court for fresh date: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/nirbhaya-case-convicts-execution-supreme-court-allows-government-to-approach-trial-court-for-fresh-date/article30792938.ece [2/11, 19:21] Sekarreporter: Appearing before a three-judge Bench led by Justice R. Banumathi, Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta said the Nirbhaya convicts were trying the patience of the nation. The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Union government to approach the trial court for issuance of a fresh date for the execution of the death sentence of the Nirbhaya gang rape convicts. [2/11, 19:21] Sekarreporter: Appearing before a three-judge Bench led by Justice R. Banumathi, Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta said the Nirbhaya convicts were trying the patience of the nation. Mr. Mehta made a chilling reference to how policemen who gunned down the four gang rape and murder accused in Hyderabad were cheered by people, calling the incident a symptom of people losing faith in the process of law. “This case [Nirbhaya] is of 2012 and I am still struggling to execute the death sentence. They [convicts] are acting in tandem to misuse the law by filing one petition after the other… People will stop having faith in the judicial system. Seven years have gone by and the convicts are still playing the judicial system… It is in situations like this that people celebrate encounter killings,” Mr. Mehta submitted. Also read | Nirbhaya case convict Vinay Sharma moves Supreme Court challenges rejection of mercy plea by President | Nirbhaya victim’s parents move Delhi court seeking death warrant for convicts The hearing began with Justice Ashok Bhushan observing that the Delhi High Court’s seven-day deadline for the four convicts to exhaust their remedies was over. The government could very well go ahead and seek a fresh date for carrying out the executions. “If nothing is pending, you can go back to the trial court and ask for issuance of a new date. Their petitions for review, curative and mercy petition have been dismissed… What is left now? What prevents you from going to the trial court?” Justice Bhushan asked Mr. Mehta. The Solicitor General said convicts Mukesh, Vinay and Akshay have seemingly exhausted remedies. The fourth, Pawan Gupta, is yet to file a mercy petition. Mr. Mehta said a plea to fix a new date for the executions in the trial court would immediately see one or the other of the four convicts move court in a bid to further prolong the process. As indicated, within a few hours of the hearing, Vinay moved the Supreme Court challenging the rejection of his mercy petition by the President. Mr. Mehta stressed that the apex court should instead focus on the government’s appeal to allow the four convicts to be separately executed. The court issued notice to the four convicts on this point and scheduled a hearing for February 13. The government has argued in the apex 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 had been rejected. It said the Rules did not prohibit the execution of the death sentence of co-convicts, one by one, on the rejection of their respective mercy petitions. Deferring the execution of the death sentence of all the four convicts had led to “gross miscarriage of justice” to the victim’s family as well as society as a whole, the government contended.
During the course of the hearing, Chief Justice Banerjee orally remarked, “Your religious rites have to be subject to public interest and the right to life. The right to religion is not higher than right to life … If government has to take measures in pandemic situation … we will not seek to interfere…. With the little that we have heard you, with the present scientific assistance … how can we come to your aid? … Now that we have the help of science, let us use science to promote your religious festivals…” January 6, 2021 by Sekar Reporter · Published January 6, 2021
Addl. Advocate General for the Madras High Court, *Chennai* August 20, 2021 by Sekar Reporter · Published August 20, 2021
16:23] Sekarreporter: W.P.No.18829 of 2021 W.P.No.18829 of 2021 THE HON’BLE CHIEF JUSTICE and P.D.AUDIKESAVALU, J. (Order of the Court was made by the Hon’ble Chief Justice) The petition, filed in public interest, challenges an office memorandum of February 19, 2021 issued by the Ministry of September 11, 2021 by Sekar Reporter · Published September 11, 2021