The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the Nirbhaya convicts, waiting on death row, to file any application they want within a week after which authorities should act.
#DelhiHC Justice Suresh Kait – Convicts have adopted delayed tactics. Death warrants to be executed together. So hereby I direct all convicts to exercise their rights with in one week. To take all the steps and use their remedies within one week. #NirbhayaCase #NirbhayaVerdict
— India Legal (@indialegalmedia) February 5, 2020
The court, however, 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.
The Court said, since their fate has been decided by one order, it must be executed on all convicts together.
The judge also noted that the convicts have inordinately delayed filing their applications after they were sentenced to death, with Akshay, filing his review plea after more than 900 days.
Justice SK Kait had reserved the order on Sunday at a special hearing after both the parties concluded their arguments on the revision application of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to set aside the stay order of the execution.
Earlier, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the Centre, had submitted that the condemned prisoners — Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur and Pawan Gupta – were taking the process of law for a “joyride” and adopting tactics to delay the execution of the sentence.
Vrinda Grover, who was appointed as amicus curiae to assist the court in the case, had said she has ensured that all the legal remedies available to the convicts are availed without any undue wastage of court’s time.
The lawyer had informed the court that the execution of all the convicts have to be postponed even if the mercy petition of a single convict is pending.
“The sentence is a common sentence, the death warrant is a common warrant. Therefore, these convicts can’t be executed separately as there can’t be a severance of the sentence,” Grover had submitted.
“Death penalty is an irreversible process. It would be a travesty of justice if the convicts are segregated in terms of sentence for the very same offence,” she had contended.
Seema Kushwaha, representing the victim paramedic student’s family, had questioned the locus standi of Grover.
— India Legal Bureau