All convicts in Nirbhaya rape case have to be executed together: Delhi HC

The court directed convicts to file any application which they want within one week after which authorities should act.
Nirbhaya's mother Asha Devi walks out of Delhi High Court after hearing of 2012 gang Rape case.(Photo| EPS/ Parveen Negi)
Nirbhaya's mother Asha Devi walks out of Delhi High Court after hearing of 2012 gang Rape case.(Photo| EPS/ Parveen Negi)

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday upheld the trial court order of no separate hanging of the four convicts in the December 2012 gangrape and murder case.

Justice Suresh Kait rules that convicts can't hang separately as they are convicted by a common order and can’t be executed separately.

The court also gave one week’s time to all the convicts to exhaust all their legal remedies. This means in one weeks time from today Pawan has to file mercy plea as he is the only one yet to seek that remedy. However, the 14-day time still remains once mercy rejected of the convicts.

The High Court also pulled up authorities and said, jail authorities were sleeping since May 2017 when the Supreme Court dismissed criminal appeals of the convicts.

“For reasons best known to them, a death warrant was not issued after that,” the court said.

Centre in its plea had challenged the January 31 order of Additional Sessions Judge, Patiala House Court, Dharmendra Rana.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta while arguing the matter before the high court, contended that the lower court order provides a perverse and misleading interpretation of Rule 836 of the Delhi Prison Rules.

“This error goes to the root of the issue. It deserves to be stayed. Every convict is enjoying defeating the judicial system in the country. Convicts are exploiting the process of law,” Mehta said.

“There is a deliberate, well calculated well thought to design to frustrate the process of law,” SG added.

Opposing the submissions of the Centre, senior advocate Rebecca John argued that Central government has no locus standi to challenge the stay imposed on convict's hanging as it was not a party to the matter in the trial court and has merely superimposed itself in it.

The 23-year-old woman was gang-raped and tortured on December 16, 2012, which led to her death. All the six accused were arrested and charged with sexual assault and murder. One of the accused was a minor and appeared before a juvenile justice court, while another accused committed suicide in Tihar Jail.

Four of the convicts were sentenced to death by a trial court in September 2013, and the verdict confirmed by the Delhi High Court in March 2014 and upheld by the Supreme Court in May 2017, which also dismissed their review petition in July 2018.

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