“My
sentiments are more in favour of the victim than they are of the murderer.
There is a tendency nowadays when any matter of criminal law is discussed to
think far more of the criminal than his victim.”
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Sharad Arvind Bobde
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The 47th Chief Justice of India, Sharad Arvind Bobde received the Rayner
Goddard Act of Courage Award from the members of Unit 1012. He favors the
use of the death penalty and is working to retain it in the country.
We have watched him fight for justice and the death penalty in India and
want him to know that he has encouraged victims' families and leaders
worldwide. We honor and respect him. We hope that more judges and government
officials will follow their courageous character.
We, the members of Unit
1012: The VFFDP, send our utmost thanks and congratulation to the Chief Justice.
He is our hero in showing his care and love for the murdered victims’ families.
We wish that more leaders can take his leadership example and follow it.
CJI SA Bobde says death-row convicts
‘cannot go on fighting endlessly’
He said the Supreme Court should focus
on the rights of the victims.
Chief Justice of India SA Bobde on Thursday said the Supreme Court should focus on
the rights of the victims, and not just those of the accused, a day after the
Centre moved the top court to seek “victim-centric”
guidelines in death-row cases, Hindustan Times reported.
Bobde made the observations while hearing a
petition filed by a couple from Amroha district in Uttar Pradesh who are on
death row. They were sentenced to death for sedating the woman’s family and
hacking them to death in April 2008. However, in 2015, the top court cancelled
their execution warrant on grounds that the magistrate had acted in haste and
the convicts were yet to exhaust their legal options.
At the start of the hearing, the chief justice said
it was extremely important for the death sentence to
have some finality. He said a death-row convict should not feel that the
sentence can be questioned all the time, adding that “one cannot go on fighting
endlessly”.
“We don’t want to focus or emphasise only
on rights of accused in a case in which seven people, including a 10-month-old
baby have been murdered,” Bobde
said.
On Wednesday, the government had said in its
application that the current rules were skewed in favour of convicts, allowing
them to “play with the law and delay execution”. The Centre also urged the
Supreme Court to set a seven-day deadline for death-row convicts to file mercy
pleas before the president. At present, the minimum time between the rejection
of a mercy plea and a convict’s execution is 14 days.
The petition was filed amid a continuing delay in
the execution of four convicts in the 2012 Delhi gangrape case. The convicts
were given the death sentence by a trial court in 2013. The punishment was
upheld by the Delhi High Court six months later, and the Supreme
Court in May 2017.
However, death warrants were issued only earlier
this month – but even that had to be postponed because the convicts continued
to use their legal options. One convict filed a mercy plea, which was rejected.
But it delayed the execution. Another claimed in the Supreme Court that he was
a juvenile
at the time of the crime, but that petition was also dismissed.
The executions are now scheduled for 6 am on
February 1. However, the option of mercy plea is still open to three of the
convicts, and two can still file curative petitions.
INTERNET SOURCE: https://scroll.in/latest/950858/cji-sa-bobde-says-death-row-convicts-cannot-go-on-fighting-endlessly
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"Punishment is the
way in which society expresses its denunciation of wrong doing; and, in order
to maintain respect for the law, it is essential that the punishment inflicted
for grave crimes should adequately reflect the revulsion felt by the great
majority of citizens for them. It is a mistake to consider the objects of
punishments as being a deterrent or reformative or preventive and nothing
else... The truth is that some crimes are so outrageous that society insists on
adequate punishment, because the wrong doer deserves it, irrespective of
whether it is a deterrent or not." – Alfred Denning
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Centre moves SC for new rules for speedy
hanging of death row convicts amid delay in execution in Nirbhaya case
PTI
January 22, 2020 21:47 IST
(Eds: adding details)
New Delhi, Jan 22 (PTI) Observing that heinous crime convicts are taking the "judicial process for a ride", the Centre on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court for fixing a 7-day deadline for execution of condemned prisoners after issuance of black warrant, amid the delay in the hanging of the four death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape-murder case.
Fresh death warrants were issued by a Delhi court on January 17 for the hanging of Vinay Sharma (26), Akshay Kumar Singh (31), Mukesh Kumar Singh (32) and Pawan (26) on February 1 after their hanging scheduled in Tihar jail on January 22 was postponed due to pending petitions.
The hanging has been delayed due to filing of review, curative and mercy petitions over a period of several months, prolonging the agony of Nirbhaya's parents and other family members.
Stressing that the "need of the hour" was to lay down guidelines in "the interest of the victims" rather than keeping the rights of the convicts in mind, the Centre said those punished for "horrible, dreadful, cruel, abominable, ghastly, gruesome and heinous offences" like rape and murder should be not permitted to play with the "majesty of law" and prolong the execution of the sentence awarded to them.
The Centre submitted this was necessary in the larger interest of public and of the victims and their families.
Seeking modifications of directions issued in 2014 in the Shatrughan Chauhan case, it said, "all the guidelines provided...are accused-centric. These guidelines, however, do not take into account an irreparable mental trauma, agony, upheaval and derangement of the victims and their family members, the collective conscience of the nation and the deterrent effect which the capital punishment intends to make."
The Centre contended that it is found several years before and after the 2014 judgment, the convicts of heinous crimes under the garb of Article 21 (right to life) take "the judicial process for a ride".
The plea said the apex court had opined that the delay in execution of death penalty has got a "de-humanising effect" upon the death convicts.
In an application, the Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA) sought a direction "to mandate all competent courts, state governments, prison authorities in country to issue death warrant of a convict within seven days of rejection of his mercy petition and to execute death sentence within 7 days thereafter irrespective of the stage of review petition/curative petition/mercy petition of his co-convicts."
The MHA, in its application, made three prayers which also included a direction from the court that a time period be fixed for such death row convicts for filing curative pleas after rejection of their review pleas.
The ministry also sought a direction that if a death row convict wanted to file a mercy petition, it should be made mandatory for him to "do so only within a period of seven days from the date of receipt of death warrant issued by the competent court".
The MHA said the country is facing a menace of certain offences relating to terrorism, rape and murder which are punishable with death sentence.
"It is submitted that the offence of rape is not only a criminal offence defined in the penal code of the country but is the most horrific and unpardonable offence in any civilized society.
The offence of rape is not only an
offence against an individual and society but is an offence against humanity.
"There are various instances of such heinous and horrific offences of rape accompanied by an equally horrible and horrific offence of murder of the victim which shakes the collective conscience of the nation," the MHA said.
The MHA, in its plea filed through Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, urged the court to fix a time limit within which the convict of death sentence should file curative petition, if he so chooses to do so.
"In case of multiple convicts of such horrific crimes who are awaiting death sentence, mandating the issuance of warrant by competent court within seven days of rejection of mercy petition and execution of death sentence within seven days thereafter irrespective of the proceeding, if any, taken by his co-convicts," it said.
The ministry said under the scheme of criminal justice system, a fool proof regime is being provided to accused at various stages of judicial scrutiny to ensure that an accused is punished strictly in accordance with law and convicts be not allowed to misuse the judicial processes.
"When a death sentence is awarded to an accused after the judicial scrutiny, the procedure established by law ensures that the said decision is mandatorily tested by the highest court of the state namely the high court," it said.
The MHA said in "furtherance of protecting the right of a convict, he has a right to approach the highest court of the country that is this court and file an appeal. This court also not only examines the entire judicial decision making afresh but also permits the accused to satisfy this court about any mitigating circumstances which the accused wants to be taken into consideration before conforming/annulling/modifying the sentence awarded and confirmed".
It also said even after dismissal of the appeal, the provision of filing review pleas are also there and they are heard in an open court in the apex court and the convicts have then got the option of filing curative pleas.
The 23-year-old paramedic student, referred to as Nirbhaya or fearless was gang-raped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012, in a moving bus in south Delhi by six people before she was thrown out on the road. PTI SJK LLP MNL RKS ZMN GSN GSN
GSN
(This story has not been edited by THE
WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)
INTERNET SOURCE: https://www.theweek.in/wire-updates/national/2020/01/22/del84-sc-ldall%20death%20penalty.html
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“There is one other consideration which I
believe should never be overlooked. If the criminal law of this country is to
be respected, it must be in accordance with public opinion, and public opinion
must support it. That goes very nearly to the root of this question of capital
punishment. I cannot believe or the public opinion (or would I rather call it
the public conscience) of this country will tolerate that persons who
deliberately condemn others to painful and, it may be, lingering deaths should
be allow to live…”
- Rayner Goddard
[Speech
in the House of Lords, 28 April 1948]
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"In criminal law legislation, our priority is the security and well
being of law-abiding citizens rather than the rights of the criminal to be
protected from incriminating evidence." – Lee Kuan Yew
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