2012 Delhi gangrape case: SC rejects convict Akshay Singh’s review plea, upholds death penalty

The hearing comes a day after Chief Justice of India S A Bobde recused himself on personal grounds from hearing the plea.

During the hearing, the convict’s lawyer A P Singh told the bench that Akshay has been condemned to death only because he hails from a poor background. He cited media and political pressure which led to the conviction of his client. Replying to him, the bench said that all these have been argued before.

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Arguing against the death sentence given to Akshay, his counsel referred to other countries doing away with the death penalty. Tushar Mehta opposed the contention saying as long as it remains in statute books, it is the law.

Explained | As 2012 Delhi gangrape case moves towards closure, some questions on death penalty answered

Mehta told the bench that there are certain crimes where “humanity cries” and this is one of them. “There are certain crimes where God would feel ashamed in not saving the child (victim) and in creating such a monster. The death penalty does not deserve to be set aside for such crimes,” Mehta said.

He also said that convicts in the Nirbhaya case are making concerted efforts to “delay the inevitable” and the law must take its own course as soon as possible.

Advocate A P Singh had told the court that the age of citizens in Delhi-NCR is reducing due to air and water pollution and there was no need to award death penalty to the convict.

Meanwhile, after the Supreme court hearing, a Delhi court is also scheduled to hear at 2 pm a plea seeking issuance of death warrants against the four convicts. All convicts will be produced through video conferencing before the court of ASJ, Satish Kumar Arora.

On December 13, Additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar Arora had said he will wait for the outcome of the review petition hearing in the top court, and issued fresh notices to the four convicts and their lawyers to appear before the court on December 18. “At least I have to wait till the time, the review is pending. My view is that once the review is pending before the Supreme Court, let’s wait for the outcome,” the judge had said.

The Supreme Court has already dismissed, more than a year ago on July 9, 2018, the review pleas filed by Vinay and another two of the convicts, Mukesh and Pawan. A fifth accused, Ram, hanged himself in his cell in Tihar, while the sixth, who was a juvenile at the time of the crime, was sent to a reform facility.

On December 6, the Union Home Ministry sent the Delhi government’s recommendation to reject the mercy plea of Vinay, one of the four convicts, to President Ram Nath Kovind.

The convicts, except Akshay, can still file curative pleas in the top court against their conviction and death penalty in the case. After exhausting the remedy of filing curative pleas, the convicts can send their mercy pleas to the President. In case the pleas are dismissed, the authorities can seek death warrants from a local court to execute them.

The 23-year-old paramedic student was gangraped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a moving bus in south Delhi by six persons before being thrown out on the road. She died on December 29, 2012, at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.

In September 2013, a fast-track court held the four convicts guilty of 13 offences including gangrape, unnatural sexual assault and murder of the woman, and attempt to murder her male friend.

Delhi court directs Tihar to seek convicts’ response on filing mercy pleas

Meanwhile, a Delhi court directed Tihar jail authorities to seek a response from four death row convicts whether they would file mercy pleas against their executions with the President. Additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar Arora, who is hearing the plea of Delhi government seeking issuance of death warrants for executing the convicts, said it would wait for the apex court order’s copy and adjourned the hearing for January 7, 2020.