A Delhi Court on Monday deferred the matter as the mercy petition of one of the convicts of a Nirbhaya rape case — Pawan Kumar Gupta – was pending before the President of India Ram Nath Kovind. This is for the third time when the Delhi Court has put a stay on the execution of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya case. All the four convicts were to be hanged together on Tuesday at 6 am.
Pawan Gupta's curative plea rejected
A 5-judge bench of the Supreme Court on Monday rejected the curative plea of the Nirbhaya convict Pawan Kumar Gupta. The rejection came up a day before the scheduled execution. Pawan was the last death row convict to have filed a curative petition in Supreme Court.
Pawan's last attempt to delay execution worked
Pawan Gupta filed a mercy petition before President Ram Nath Kovind. Ministry of Home Affairs received the mercy petition (for President) of Pawan Gupta on Monday. As a result, Delhi's Patiala House Court reserved the order on convict Pawan Gupta's plea that sought a stay on the execution as his mercy petition was pending before the President.
"Our entire system supports criminals"
Asha Devi, the mother of the Nirbhaya rape victim, asked, "Why is the court taking so much time to execute its own order to hang the convicts? Repeated postponing of the execution shows the failure of our system. Our entire system supports criminals."
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How did Netizens react?
A user Parveen Kaswan said that "Hanging of Nirbhaya rape convicts has been again postponed by court. This is when people lose confidence in the justice delivery system. And start seeking instant justice by other means. Swift and certain justice by legal means boost confidence. Otherwise, it inflicts a mob mentality."
Another user wrote: "What a system, Nirbhaya rapists are more powerful even in the custody than the entire Judiciary. It's demotivating to see that the judiciary is not able to hang the rapist. What is the message to society? Finally, justice is denied. Can we expect judiciary and govt to wake up."
-PTC News
