SC trash PIL for execution of Delhi gang rape convicts

The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a PIL by an advocate for a direction to execute four convicts, awarded death penalty in the infamous Delhi gang rape of 2012, where a 23-year-old girl was brutally assaulted and murdered in a moving bus, sending shock waves across the country.

"What kind of PIL is this? Don't file such petitions or we will ask registry not to entertain your plea," a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta told advocate Alakh Alok Shrivastava, who filed the petition in his personal capacity.

“You want us to go around and execute people? You are making the court a joke,” the bench further said expressing their displeasure.

The petitioner, among others, have also sought a direction to prescribe "strict timelines for speedy execution of death row convicts", a maximum period of eight months after the trial court's judgement to exhaust all remedies including mercy petition, in rape-cum-murder cases.

He claimed delay in execution of death penalty is acting as a bad precedent and not able to act as a deterrent to the rapists and has resulted into increasing incidents of horrific offences of rapes being reported on a daily basis in our country.

In the case of gang rape and murder of the 23-year-old, the petitioner pointed out despite lapse of more than 4.5 months from the date of dismissal of the review petition, the convicts have not yet been executed.

The convicts Akshay, Vinay, Mukesh and Pawan were awarded death penalty by the trial court in 2013, which was confirmed by the Delhi High Court in the year 2014 itself. Thereafter, the top court had on May 5, 2017 dismissed the appeals and rejected their review petitions on July 9 against the capital punishment.