Nirbhaya Convict hanging is alright but what about others?

Once more the black warrant against Nirbhaya convicts stayed because, the mercy petition of one of the convicts named Pawan is pending. The mercy petition filed today post SC quashing a curative petition. As per Jail manual, execution of capital punishment can’t be done in case there’s a mercy petition pending. Further if there’s several people convicted for a same crime then they all ought to be hanged at once and not separately. Thus, Pawan’s filing mercy petition saved some days for all four convicts.

It’s no doubt that the advocate of the convicts took advantage of present law system to buy some more time for the victims from the noose. People, media and many other are angry on this tactic of presenting one after another option to delay the execution of the convicts . But the law says that the convicts with capital punishment have the right to use all legal options available to them. You may say, the system is bad, but then if that’s the law, then you must give that benefit to the convicts and their legal counselor.

Many say that after President rejects Pawan’s plea then there will be final death warrant and convicts won’t have any other option. But I won’t be surprised if the lawyer of convicts finds out another way to delay the execution. If those are as per law of the land, then I think we must have to accept it.

I can understand the pain of Nirbhaya’s mother. In a first-tract court if the case didn’t get into its logical conclusion after more than seven years, anybody especially victim and her relatives will be pained a lot. Thus, although her demand appears to be a death cry, one can realize the trauma and frustration she might be going through. Justice when delivered in reasonable time, people trust on the system, else justice delayed becomes justice denied.

But then I regularly observe the media’s hysteria on this case. Loud debates are going on in the TV studios and people blame the loopholes of the system. I understand that Nirbhaya had undergone through a brutal assault and perhaps the scale of the crime shaken the conscious of the entire society, but then I wonder why media never questioned about other convicts of death penalty? There are number of convicts with death penalty mercy petition of whom either rejected by the President or pending with President for years and even decades. The below is the statement sourced from Wikipedia.

There are many cases where President commuted death sentence into life imprisonment. There also many cases where although President rejected the mercy petition but SC commute to life imprisonment because of delay in disposing the mercy petitions. It’s also complained that many mercy petitions dealt with a political interest. Even some also complained that some executions are done purely on political reason bypassing the earlier convicts with death penalty.

Let me be frank here. Death Penalty always given in rarest of the rare crimes. Thus, whoever are on death penalty row are no less criminal than the convicts of Nirbhaya case. If there’s death penalty is the law of the land, then it should be executed without any bias. You just can’t execute some convicts selectively while ignoring or delaying other convicts of death row.

The bottom line is that India must have an unbiased Standard Operating Procedure in handling the death penalty. For example, once the lower court gave a death penalty and High Court confirmed it, then the appeal process should be a time bound one so is the deadline of applying for mercy petition. There should also be time limit for disposal of death penalty. In case President couldn’t disposed a death penalty by the deadline then it will be considered as rejection of death penalty.

Point is if there’s a death penalty, it should be done with right earnest and without any bias or selectiveness. Else abolish death penalty. What is the point is keeping a punishment which is executed selectively most of the time because of political reason?