ICJ can't stay Nirbhaya case convicts hanging: Justice Srikrishna

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has no jurisdiction to order a stay on the March 20 hanging of the Nirbhaya case convicts, former Supreme Court Judge B N Srikrishna said on Tuesday.

Three of the four convicts -- Vinay Sharma, Pawan Kumar Gupta, Akshay Singh -- have moved the ICJ seeking a stay on their "unlawful execution", alleging the probe leading to their conviction was "flawed" and they have been treated as "guinea pigs".

Reacting to the convicts' appeal, Justice Srikrishna said the ICJ can act only if there is a jurisdiction.

"Jurisdiction has to be agreed by the countries. I don't think ICJ can interfere in this case and stay the execution," he said.

He also pointed out that the ICJ was not the next court of appeal.

"For them (convicts), now the last court of appeal will be only god. Human rights commissions could intervene if there is a denial of natural justice.

"But in this case, the entire process of proper hearings right from the trial court, high court to the Supreme Court was carried out. Moreover, so many review petitions and curative petitions have been filed by all the convicts in the apex court," he said.

A former Chief Justice of India, who did not wanted to be named, too said the ICJ had no role to play in the Nirbhaya case because of the jurisdictional issue and India declining to be a party to the set-up.

The international judicial body could not take up and decide on the matters on which the Indian judiciary has already decided after a through trial and appeal procedures, he said.

The trio's petition said they and another convict Mukesh Singh had not yet exhausted all their legal remedies.

It is very important to state that "legal remedies/ cases are already pending for disposal before different courts/constitutional bodies in India on behalf of these death row convicts, but very unfortunately and surprisingly in India, Central Jail Tihar has planned and is going to hang them on March 20", their petition said.

It urged the ICJ to launch an "urgent investigation" into the possibility of false testimony by the sole eyewitness, the friend of the victim, in the case.

The petition claimed that the convicts have been treated as "guinea pigs" and have been falsely implicated in the case and it urged the ICJ to order urgent probe into the matter.

On March 5, a trial court had issued fresh warrants with March 20, 5.30 am, as the date for the execution of the convicts.

A 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who came to be known as Nirbhaya (fearless), was gang raped and savagely assaulted in a moving bus in south Delhi on December 16, 2012. She died after a fortnight.

Six people, including the four convicts and a juvenile, were named as accused. Ram Singh, the sixth accused, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail days after the trial began in the case.

The juvenile was released in 2015 after spending three years in a correctional home.