NEW DELHI: Union minister G Kishan Reddy on Friday said there must be a debate on how the convicts in heinous crimes continue to delay execution of death penalty by exploring the judicial process even after the Supreme Court upholds their conviction.
His remarks came in the wake of a Delhi court postponing the execution of death warrants of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case till further order.
Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana passed the order on a plea by the convicts seeking a stay on their execution on Saturday, February 1.
“There must be a debate on how the convicts in heinous crimes, even after Supreme Court upholds their conviction, continue to delay execution of death penalty by exploring the judicial process,” Reddy, Union Minister of State for Home, told reporters here.
The Delhi court did not agree with the Tihar Jail authorities, which had challenged the application of the three condemned prisoners in the case, seeking a stay on their execution.
The black warrants for the execution of the death sentence were issued on January 17. The convicts’ lawyer argued that the rules dictate that when one a convict’s plea is pending the others cannot be hanged.
Dire need to amend laws: Kejriwal
CM Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said it is sad that the convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya case are “escaping death sentence” by using legal loopholes. “They should be immediately hanged. We are in dire need to amend our law so that in cases of rape, hanging takes place within 6 months,” he said in the tweet in Hindi.
Blot on our legal system: Gambhir
BJP MP Gautam Gambhir publicly expressed his disgust as NIrbhaya case convicts’ hanging was postponed yet again,. Taking to Twitter, the East Delhi MP said: “Each day these monsters get to live is a blot on us and our legal system!” “A mother had to wait for 7years. When will her wait get over? Hang them now!”
With agency inputs