"Hearing someone being hanged on Feb 1 is top priority": CJI on Nirbhaya convicts

Days after the Ministry of Home Affairs moved the Supreme Court seeking modification of the guidelines for the death-row convicts, asking the top court to make the guidelines more “victim-centric”, a death-row convict in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape case moved the Supreme Court challenging the rejection of his mercy petition by the President.

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Mukesh’s plea before the Supreme Court comes in after the President rejected his mercy petition, in effect paving the way for the hanging on February 1. His plea also asks for a stay on the death warrant issued against him and the other three convicts in the case.

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'Hearing them is top priority'

Advocate AP Singh, the lawyer for Mukesh today mentioned the petition before the Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde asking for it to be heard on an urgent basis as early as possible. CJI Bobde told Singh “if someone is going to be hanged on February 1, hearing them is top priority”.

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The CJI then told the Counsel to approach the Registrar for an early date which the top court will then take into consideration.

The multiple petitions being filed by the convicts in the Nirbhaya case in various courts across the country have been criticised by several persons within the legal fraternity referring to them as “delaying tactics” and “manipulation of the system”. The Supreme Court dismissing the petition challenging the Presidential order on the mercy plea, might be the final nail in the coffin for the convicts who are scheduled to face the gallows in less than a week.

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