Centre urges SC for victim-centric rules in death penalty cases

The government on Wednesday (January 22) asked the Supreme Court for “victim-centric” guidelines in death penalty cases and a time-limit for convicts using their last available legal options.

The current rules are skewed towards the convicts and allowed them to “play with the law and delay execution,” the Centre said in its petition amid anger over a delay in the Nirbhaya convicts’ hanging.

The petition asks for a modification in a past Supreme Court judgment on rights available to death row convicts and says there should be a time limit to file a curative petition after the Supreme Court rejects the petition seeking review of a convict’s death sentence.

Also read: Justice after 7 years: Nirbhaya rapists to be hanged

The four convicts sentenced to death in the 2012 Delhi gang-rape or the Nirbhaya case were initially supposed to hang today, going by a lower court order on January 9. On January 20, the apex court dismissed a petition filed by one of the death-row convicts claiming that he was a juvenile during the time of the crime.

Also read: SC dismisses Nirbhaya convict’s plea claiming he was juvenile in 2012

All four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape case will be hanged at 6 am on February 1, a Delhi court said on January 17. This comes after the Tihar jail authorities sought from a Delhi court the issuance of fresh death warrants against the four convicts.

The four convicts facing the gallows in the 2012 case include Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma, and Mukesh Singh. Prime accused Ram Singh had in committed suicide in Tihar jail days after the trial began. Another accused, a juvenile, was released after he spent three years in a correctional home.

Also read: Nirbhaya rapists to be hanged on Feb 1, fresh death warrant issued

(With inputs from agencies)