The Supreme Court on Friday adjourned the hearing of a plea filed by the Centre challenging the Delhi High Court’s dismissal of its appeal to separately execute the four death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya case.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, asked the court to decide whether authorities be told to wait for all the convicts to exhaust their remedies, especially since Pawan has not filed anything since 2018 when his review was rejected. “The nation’s patience is being tested,” said Mehta.
However, the bench comprising Justices R Banumathi Ashok Bhushan & AS Bopanna said that a convict cannot be compelled to exercise their legal remedies.
The government urged the bench to serve notices to the four convicts, but the bench did not heed to the government’s request, saying it would further delay the matter. “Let the one week time be over. Maybe all options will be exhausted by then. We’ll consider it then,” said Justice Bhushan.
On February 11, the one week time given by Delhi High Court to convicts to exhaust their legal remedy will expire.
The pendency of a mercy petition cannot be a reason to defer the executions of other convicts in the same case, whose legal remedies have been exhausted, argued the Solicitor General.
“The case involves a point of law which is not yet clear. The law must be settled authoritatively,” said Mehta.
The appeal was filed shortly after the high court directed the convicts, waiting on death row, to file any application they want within a week after which authorities should act.
In his order, Justice Suresh Kait of the high court refused to set aside the trial court’s stay on the execution of the death warrant, reiterating that under the law, co-convicts cannot be executed on separate dates.
In effect, the high court set a week’s timeframe for the condemned prisoners — Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur and Pawan Gupta –- to exhaust all their legal remedies.
A Delhi court on Thursday had asked the four Nirbhaya case death-row convicts, to respond by tomorrow on an application filed by the Tihar jail authorities for fixing fresh date and time for their execution.
The response of the condemned prisoners — Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Thakur (31) – was sought by Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana.
The Centre’s plea, filed through Special Public Prosecutor Irfan Ahmed, said fresh black warrant be issued in the “interest of justice”.
On January 31, the trial court had postponed till further orders the hanging of the 2012 gangrape and murder case convicts, who are lodged in Tihar jail.