New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain an application filed by the central government seeking to prescribe victim and society-centric guidelines in cases of heinous death penalty offences.
The matter came up for hearing before a bench headed by Justice Vikram Nath, comprising Justice Sandeep Mehta and Justice N V Anjaria. The bench made it clear that it is not willing to entertain the petition and will dismiss it. The bench said, We need this M. A. (miscellaneous application) does not show any qualification.
In January 2020, the Centre had filed an application in the apex court. The application argued that the existing guidelines are only “accused and guilty-centric”.
The Centre said the culprits of heinous crimes are betraying the judicial process. The apex court had agreed to examine the application on January 31, 2020 and sought responses from various stakeholders, on whose petition the apex court had laid down guidelines relating to hanging death row convicts in 2014.
These guidelines were laid down in the case of Shatrughan Chauhan vs Union of India in 2014. The apex court had then made it clear that the issue of conviction and sentencing related to the Shatrughan Chauhan case will not be changed while considering the Centre’s petition.
The Centre had then said that the death penalty is given in cases that shake the collective conscience of the court. The top court said the 2014 case has been finalised as the review and corrective petitions have already been dismissed.
The Centre had said that there is no time limit for the convict sentenced to death to avail legal and constitutional treatment. It said the court should now take into account the interests of the victim and society and lay down guidelines.
The Centre had requested the apex court to fix a seven-day time limit for hanging the convicts after the black warrant was issued. The Centre had cited the delay in the hanging of four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case.
The execution in that case was delayed due to the filing of review, corrective and mercy petitions for several months.
