NEW DELHI: None of the petitions of any of the convicts in Nirbhaya case are pending before any court of constitutional authority, Tihar Jail authorities informed a Delhi court on Thursday, urging it to fix a date and time for hanging the four death-row convicts.
After taking note of Tihar Jail’s application, filed through special prosecutor Irfan Ahmed, additional sessions judge Dharmender Rana sought response of the four convicts. As far as the convicts’ legal remedies are concerned, the plea stressed, as of today, “nothing survives”. The plea, therefore, stated, “Keeping in view a week’s time given to the convicts by Delhi high court by order dated February 5, 2020, the fresh date for execution of death warrants...may kindly be fixed specifying the date and time for execution/hanging of convicts.”
Judge Rana in his January 31 order “postponed till further orders” the hanging of the four convicts. The order stated, “The courts of this country cannot afford to adversely discriminate any convict, including death-row convicts, in pursuit of his legal remedies by turning a Nelson’s eye towards him.”
The high court had on February 2 dismissed the Centre’s plea challenging the order postponing the hanging and said that all four convicts — Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Thakur (31) — will have to be executed together and not separately.
Appearing for one of the convicts, senior counsel Rebecca John asked where the Centre was all this while in the warrant proceedings and why it had only “woken up” yesterday. “We are taking a life from a human being… And, therefore, the Constitution of India gives me the option of legal remedies,” she submitted.
After taking note of Tihar Jail’s application, filed through special prosecutor Irfan Ahmed, additional sessions judge Dharmender Rana sought response of the four convicts. As far as the convicts’ legal remedies are concerned, the plea stressed, as of today, “nothing survives”. The plea, therefore, stated, “Keeping in view a week’s time given to the convicts by Delhi high court by order dated February 5, 2020, the fresh date for execution of death warrants...may kindly be fixed specifying the date and time for execution/hanging of convicts.”
Judge Rana in his January 31 order “postponed till further orders” the hanging of the four convicts. The order stated, “The courts of this country cannot afford to adversely discriminate any convict, including death-row convicts, in pursuit of his legal remedies by turning a Nelson’s eye towards him.”
The high court had on February 2 dismissed the Centre’s plea challenging the order postponing the hanging and said that all four convicts — Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Thakur (31) — will have to be executed together and not separately.
Appearing for one of the convicts, senior counsel Rebecca John asked where the Centre was all this while in the warrant proceedings and why it had only “woken up” yesterday. “We are taking a life from a human being… And, therefore, the Constitution of India gives me the option of legal remedies,” she submitted.
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