NEW DELHI, Feb 14: Clearing the way for the execution of Vinay Sharma, one of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case, the Supreme Court on Friday dismissed his plea against the rejection of his mercy petition by the president.
The top court refused to accept Sharma’s contention that the president did not apply his mind while rejecting the mercy plea and it was done in a “mala fide” manner.
“When the highest constitutional authority, upon perusal of the note and the various documents placed along with mercy petition, has taken a decision to reject the mercy petition, it cannot be contended that the highest constitutional authority had not applied its mind to the documents,” it said.
A bench of Justices R Banumathi, Ashok Bhushan and AS Bopanna said, “In the result, we do not find any ground for exercise of judicial review of the order of the President of India rejecting the petitioner’s mercy petition and this writ petition is liable to be dismissed. The writ petition is dismissed accordingly.”
The apex court had earlier dismissed a similar plea filed by another death row convict in the case, Mukesh Kumar Singh (32).
The mercy petition by the third convict – Akshay Kumar (31) – has also been rejected, but he is yet to challenge the rejection.
The fourth convict, Pawan Gupta (25), is yet to exhaust his legal remedies, such as filing curative petition – the last legal remedy available to person and the mercy plea.
The Delhi high court has said that all the four convicts in the Nirbhaya case have to be hanged together and not separately. (PTI)
