Nirbhaya convicts hanged but many screws are still stuck on. A thought to ponder.

New Delhi: All the four convicts in one of the most infamous gang rape cum murder case, Nirbhaya, have been finally hanged to death on March 20 in Tihar Jail. The four convicts Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur, were first sentenced to death in the case in 2013 itself. The case kept dragging thereafter in various courts from lower courts to Supreme Court. The seven years gap from 2013 to 2020, witnessed various legal hurdles in the case which in itself raises several questions on the judiciary and the advocates.

Due to the delay in getting justice from the court, even on the mercy petitions of the convicts awaiting execution, the decisions could not find a place in time. The Supreme Court also had commuted the death sentence of 15 convicts to life imprisonment in 2014. The SC had remarked in one of its important judgments regarding the prisoners who were awaiting a death sentence, that mercy petitions of the criminals who were sentenced to death could not be delayed indefinitely.  In case of delay, their sentence could be reduced.

Can there be anything worse than death? Probably, waiting for it, especially when the wait is not for a few hours, days or months, but years. In some cases, the wait also lasts for decades. A large number of inmates languishing in Indian jails are unsure as to what is in store for them, because it still remains to be decided as to what to do with such dreaded criminals.

They are sent to the gallows, as decided by the courts many times, or given life, under the provision of amnesty provided in the constitution. Whatever be the situation, one thing to be considered is that the real problem is not related to hanging or otherwise. The problem is that instead of doing something, the matter is deferred indefinitely without any rationality, and this is the only reason for the delay.

However, the Nirbhaya incident was so heartbreaking that the whole country was distracted. Seeing her condition, even the doctor and medical team attending on her dumbfound and shaken. The brutal mishap had taken place near a bus stop in south Delhi’s Munirka in the cold night of 16 December 2012. In this case, the Delhi Police had arrested six persons including the bus driver. One of them was a minor, who was released after being kept in a reform home for three years. Accused Ram Singh had later committed suicide in jail.

Should there be a ban on hanging?

With the hanging of the accused in the Nirbhaya rape case, there are also questions in some circles regarding death sentence to be done away with in India? Some time ago the human rights organization Amnesty International had released the list of countries where the death penalty still existed. India is also included in such countries. In countries around the world, the total number of people who have been given death sentence is less than that in China alone.

According to Amnesty’s report, every year thousands of people face death sentence and execution. Iran, Saudi Arabia, America, Pakistan and Bangladesh are among the prominent countries where this punishment is in vogue. According to some thinkers the countries that follow the path of capital punishment to fight crime, think wrong. There is no evidence that the criminal does not commit a crime for fear of capital punishment. This is proved to some extent in the Nirbhaya incident. Even after that heinous scandal, there is no cut in the rape cases in the country. Perhaps this is due to a long time-consuming process and uncertainty in the execution of the death sentence.

Meanwhile, in free India, the state of Uttar Pradesh tops the list of execution as far as capital punishment is concerned. This is followed by Haryana and Madhya Pradesh. Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte were the first criminals of independent India who were hanged on 15 November 1949 in the Central Jail in Ambala. They were accused of being involved in the murder and conspiracy to kill Mahatma Gandhi. Although Gandhiji was murdered in Delhi on 30 January 1948, Godse and Apte were taken to Ambala for hanging. The decision in this regard was taken at the peak level.

It can’t also be denied how many times the decisions of the courts are not implemented. Take the case of Devendra Singh Bhullar. 13 people were killed in the 1993 bomb blast in Delhi. Bhullar was convicted in this case. The Sessions Court, High Court, and Supreme Court all punished him. He filed a mercy petition and in May 2011, it was rejected by the President. But, even after such a long time, the case did not end. In September 2011, the Supreme Court accepted a petition to consider reducing the sentence of Bhullar, in which he had cited his right to live.

As of now, nobody knows what the future of Bhullar will be? If the convict awaiting execution is kept in jail for a long time, it means double punishment. This is a clear violation of Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, which gives the right to protection to all citizens.

Whose decision is final?

The decision of the President in relation to the execution or otherwise can also not be considered final. Eminent lawyer Majid Menon once said that the delay in mercy petitions is due to the red-tapism prevalent in the government departments. If the recommendation is sent to the President from there soon, then the delay at this level can be overcome. Further, the President cannot decide alone in the matter of mercy petitions. According to Article 74 of the constitution, the Union Cabinet approves mercy petitions to the President on which he is obliged to decide accordingly.

However, after going through the past, many such cases were found in which despite the advice having been received from the government, the Presidents did not announce the final decision for years. Decisions delayed and backlog cases increased much in the early 1990s. There is no deadline to decide on mercy petitions from the President or the government. But until the last years of the 1980s, such decisions did not take more than two-three years. The Supreme Court’s decision in 1990 stated that the President cannot be compelled to take a decision on pending mercy petitions within two years, because the evidence varies in each case.

Although Nirbhaya will now be able to sleep peacefully in heaven, but many screws are still stuck on the issues related to hanging in Prithvi Lok.

The writer is a Rajya Sabha member in the Parliament