Nirbhaya case: SC to hear review plea of convict on Dec 17

The Supreme Court will hear on December 17 the plea filed by one of the four death-row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape-and-murder case seeking review of its 2017 judgement awarding him death penalty.

A three-judge bench would hear next week the plea filed by convict Akshay Kumar Singh, whose lawyer has questioned in the review petition the capital punishment at a time life is getting "short" due to rising pollution.

"Take notice that the following matter (Akshay's review plea) will be listed for hearing on Tuesday the December 17, 2019 at 2 PM before a three judges bench," said a notice which was uploaded on the apex court's website.

The apex court had on July 9 last year dismissed the review pleas filed by the three other convicts -- Mukesh (30), Pawan Gupta (23) and Vinay Sharma (24) -- in the case saying no grounds have been made out by them for review of the 2017 verdict.

A 23-year-old paramedic student, who came to be known as Nirbhaya, was gang-raped on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a running bus in south Delhi by six persons and severely assaulted before being thrown out on the road. She succumbed to injuries on December 29 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.

One of the accused in the case, Ram Singh, had allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar Jail here.

A juvenile, who was among the accused, was convicted by a juvenile justice board. He was released from a reformation home after serving a three-year term.

Akshay's review plea, filed through advocate A P Singh, referred to the health risks due to the rising pollution level in Delhi and said, "Life is going short to short, then why death penalty".

"The state must not simply execute people to prove that it is attacking terror or violence against women. It must persistently work towards systematic reforms to bring about change. Executions only kill the criminal, not the crime...," the review plea said.

The apex court in its 2017 verdict had upheld the capital punishment awarded to them by the Delhi High Court and the trial court in the case.

Akshay, lodged in a jail here, has said in his review plea that death penalty entails "cold blooded killing" and it does not provide convicts the chance to reform.

The plea referred to the moral reasons for abolition of the death penalty and said there was no evidence to show that such a punishment has got a deterrent value.

It also referred to the observations of former Chief Justice of India P N Bhagwati that the convicts, hailing from poor background, are more likely to be sent to the gallows.

"If our criminal justice system cannot guarantee the consistent application of legal standards and the rule of law, then, how can we allow judiciary to decide as to who should live or die," it said.

The plea, strangely, talked about the health risks such as rising pollution level in Delhi and said, "Life is going short to short, then why death penalty."