Blaming the Centre as well as the Delhi government for the delay in the execution and appearing for Delhi gang rape convict Mukesh on Sunday at a special hearing of the Delhi High Court, lawyer Rebecca John said that the Centre should have gone to the Supreme Court challenging the order of postponement of the hanging and not sought the intervention of the Delhi High Court.
“If the sentence is common for the four convicts, then the execution too has to be common,” the senior advocate told the court.
The court was holding a special hearing to decide a petition by the Centre challenging the postponement of the death warrant till further orders in the December 16, 2012 gang-rape case, which claimed that the convicts are testing the “patience of the country”.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, M Natraj and Amit Mahajan represented the Centre at the hearing while the accused were represented by Rebecca John, Vrinda Grover and advocate A P Singh.
Citing an earlier instance, where the division bench of the Delhi High Court had sent the matter back to the trial court, John said that the petition was not maintainable in the high court. She also reiterated that the legal remedies convict Mukesh could try was linked to the legal options of the other convicts.
The senior advocate said, “The Centre has woken up yesterday and they were blaming the convict on death row for the delay. In the last so many years, had the Delhi government moved court seeking issuance of a death warrant?”
{{/usCountry}}The senior advocate said, “The Centre has woken up yesterday and they were blaming the convict on death row for the delay. In the last so many years, had the Delhi government moved court seeking issuance of a death warrant?”
{{/usCountry}}Emphasising that the matter did not relate to an ordinary prisoner, John said, “The convicts have right to use their legal options and they would use it till the last breath of their life. The Centre did not put in any appearance before the trial court and has just woken up a couple of days ago.”
On Friday, a Delhi court had postponed the hanging of the four convicts, which had been scheduled for February 1 at 6am, till further orders on a plea by one of the convicts – Vinay Sharma – seeking a stay on the execution of the death warrant in wake of the mercy plea filed before the President.
Advocate AP Singh appearing for death row convicts Pawan Gupta, Akshay Kumar and Vinay Sharma, contended that there was no prescribed time given to execute the death sentence by the Supreme Court and Constitution.