Nirbhaya Gangrape: Mocking Justice, Says Smriti Irani; Supreme Court Will Hear Mukesh’s Plea on March 16

According to his petition, Grover had forced him to sign curative and mercy petitions. Mukesh was told that he had to file a curative petition within seven days after the death warrant was issued on January 7 — the first time. His advocate said that once can file a curative petition within three years after his review plea is dismissed. Mukesh’s review plea was dismissed in 2018.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has fixed March 16 to hear the petition filed by one of the convicts of the Nirbhaya gangrape case, Mukesh Singh, in which he complained against his court-appointed amicus curiae Vrinda Grover for misleading him. According to his petition, Grover had forced him to sign curative and mercy petitions. Mukesh was told that he had to file a curative petition within seven days after the death warrant was issued on January 7 — the first time. His advocate said that one can file a curative petition within three years after his review plea is dismissed. Mukesh’s review plea was dismissed in 2018.

2012 Delhi gang-rape case: Supreme Court today fixed March 16 (Monday), to hear a petition filed by one of the Nirbhaya death row convicts, Mukesh Singh, seeking action against his former advocate, for the restoration of his legal remedies in the case.

— ANI (@ANI) March 7, 2020

Mukesh Singh moved to the Apex Court seeking his rights to file curative plea and mercy petitions till 2021 — three years from 2018. The four convicts — Mukesh, Vinay, Akshay and Pawan — are scheduled to be hanged on March 20. It remains to be seen whether this date, like the earlier two dates, gets postponed in a legal tangle.

Earlier on the day, Union minister Smriti Irani said she was “enraged” that the death-row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape case were making a “mockery of justice” by their delaying tactics and asserted that urgent steps were required to stop it. “We need to go a step forward, especially with regard to the conviction rates. What we saw in the Nirbhaya case and it is happening.

“The fact that rapists can throw caution to the winds, the fact that they can laugh in the face of justice is a fact that enrages me no end,” she said inaugurating a national conference on women in police and Central Armed Police Forces, organised by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD).

“Since the issue (Nirbhaya case) has not come to end, I will request the MHA that after the hanging of these convicts, all arms of the government need to sit down along with the judiciary to see to it that once evidence has been collected and once a decision has been made by courts, this mockery of justice does not happen,” Irani said.

(With Agency Inputs)