Supreme Court verdict on Vinay’s mercy petition today

New Delhi: The Supreme Court, on Thursday, reserved its verdict on a plea by Vinay Sharma — one of the four death row convicts in Nirbhaya case — challenging the rejection of his mercy petition by President Ram Nath Kovind.

Vinay Sharma has challenged the rejection of the mercy petition citing flaws including lack of “procedural fairness” while considering and rejecting the mercy petition.

A bench comprising Justice R. Banumathi, Justice Ashok Bhushan, and Justice A.S. Bopanna reserved the order with solicitor general Tushar Mehta producing the entire record relating to Vinay Sharma’s mercy petition demonstrating that there was no procedural infirmity and everything was followed to the last dot.

Advocate A.P. Singh told the court that Vinay Sharma was ill-treated in the jail, was beaten up several times, subjected to indignities and torture by the jail staff and other jail inmates.

The court rejected Mr Singh’s plea that he may be permitted to peruse the file relating to Vinay Sharma’s mercy petition.

The court will pronounce its order on Friday (Feb. 14) and will also hear the Centre’s plea for separate hanging of three convicts — Vinay, Akshay, and Mukesh — who have already exhausted all the legal remedies, including mercy petition.

The Centre and the Delhi government have approached the top court challenging the Delhi high court’s judgment holding that all the four death row convicts in Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case will be executed together and not individually. Notice to the four convicts on Centre and Delhi government’s plea for separate execution of death sentence was issued on February 11, 2020.

A Delhi court, on Thursday, appointed an advocate to represent Pawan Gupta, one of the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case, after he refused to take a lawyer offered by District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) as legal aid.

The court had, on Wednesday, offered a counsel to Gupta and expressed displeasure over the delay in the process from his side. Gupta said he had removed his earlier lawyer and would need time to engage a new one.

Gupta is the only one among the four convicts who has not yet filed a curative petition — the last legal remedy available to a person that is decided in-chamber. He also has the option of filing a mercy plea.

The court was hearing applications moved by Nirbhaya’s parents and the Delhi government, seeking fresh death warrants for the four convicts.