A Delhi Court on Wednesday issued notice to the four death-row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya rape and murder case in a plea seeking a fresh death warrant to be issued against them.
The court issued the notice to and all and listed the matter for hearing at 2 pm on Thursday.
It was forcefully argued that since all available legal remedies have been exhausted, there is no requirement of issuing any notice and court may straightaway fix the date of execution.
Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana said, “In my opinion, principles of natural justice are implicit in Article 21 of Constitution of India.
He further said that the sacrosanct principle of ‘Audi Alteram Partem’ (let the opposite party be heard) cannot be ignored by this Court.
The move came soon after President Ram Nath Kovind rejected the mercy plea of fourth convict Pawan Gupta, following which Tihar jail authorities moved the court to inform the court that the President has rejected Pawan’s mercy plea and the same has been informed to him.
Tihar jail authorities sought fresh death warrant on the ground that all the four convicts have exhausted all the legal and constitutional remedies available to them and none of the petitions is pending before any court or constitutional authority.
The trial court had earlier issued a death warrant for execution for March 3 at 6 am for all the four convicts– Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) — in the case.