2012 Delhi gangrape case: HC gives death row convicts a week to exhaust all legal remedies, pulls up authorities for delaying matters

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday gave the four convicts in the 2012 gangrape and murder case a period of one week to exhaust all legal remedies available, after which the procedure of the death sentence will be initiated, ANI reported. The high court, stating that the four convicts cannot be executed separately, also rejected the Centre’s plea against a trial court’s order postponing the initiation of the death sentence. A bench of Justice Suresh Kumar Kait also pulled up the authorities for not taking timely action and sitting over the convicts’ death warrant, since the rejection of their appeals of the accused by the Supreme Court in 2017. “All authorities were waiting and sleeping since May 2017,” Kait said, and directed the convicts to exhaust within seven days all the remedies available to them after which the authorities should act as per law. [caption id=“attachment_3425280” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] The four death row convicts in the 2012 Delhi gangrape and murder case. PTI[/caption] The high court also noted, “It cannot be disputed that the convicts have frustrated the process by using delaying tactics.” Asha Devi, mother of the victim, said,“I welcome the Delhi High Court’s verdict. It gives all four convicts one week to resort to all legal remedies available to them. After this, the convicts should be hanged soon.” The Centre and the Delhi government had challenged the trial court’s 31 January order staying “till further orders” the execution of all the four convicts in the case — Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31), who are lodged in Tihar Jail. The court had held that the country “couldn’t afford to discriminate against a death row convict in pursuit of legal remedies”, The Indian Express reported. Earlier on Wednesday, the parents of the victim urged the court to expeditiously decide on the Centre’s plea and were assured by the judge that the order would be passed at the earliest. The trial court on 7 January, had issued black warrants for the execution of all the four convicts in Tihar jail at 7 am on 22 January. However, they could not be hanged due to pendency of mercy petition of one of them. Later, on 17 January, the trial court fixed 1 February, 6 am as the hanging date and time. On 31 January, the trial court again stayed the execution as the counsel for three convicts —Pawan, Vinay and Akshay—urged it to adjourn the matter “sine die” saying their legal remedies were yet to be exhausted. While the mercy pleas of Mukesh and Vinay have been rejected by the President, Pawan has not yet filed it. Akshay’s mercy plea was filed on 1 February and is pending. The Centre and Delhi government approached the high court on 1 February, challenging the trial court’s order staying the execution. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing them, had contended that it was a deliberate and calculated design of the convicts to “frustrate mandate of law” by getting their execution delayed and they were not entitled to any more time. The counsel for the convicts opposed the plea saying it was not maintainable and that the Centre was never a party in the case proceedings before the trial court and while the government was accusing the convict of delay, it has woken up only now. A 23-year-old paramedic student was raped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of 16-17 December, 2012 inside a moving bus in south Delhi by six persons, before being thrown out on the road. She died on December 29, 2012 in Singapore’s Mount Elizabeth Hospital. With inputs from agencies