A three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on December 17 a review petition filed by one of the four condemned men in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case.
A circular issued by the court on Thursday said the petition filed by Akshay Kumar Singh would be heard in the open at 2 p.m. The circular mention the names of the three judges who would be on the Bench.
Akshay has sought a review of the apex court's 2017 judgment confirming his death sentence. He said “executions only kill criminals, not the crime”.
“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 being about change,” he urged the court to reconsider his fate.
Akshay, along with Mukesh (30), Pawan Gupta (23) and Vinay Sharma (24), gang-raped a 23-year-old para-medical student in a moving bus on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012. She died of her injuries a few days later.
The case shocked the nation and led to the tightening of anti-rape laws. Rape, especially gang rape, is now a capital crime.
In July last year, the apex court dismissed the review petitions of Mukesh, Gupta and Sharma. They are left with the extremely rare remedy of filing curative petitions in the court.
Akshay, however, did not join them. He opted to file his review petition now when the authorities are reportedly making preparations in Tihar jail for their execution.
One of the accused, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide in the jail. 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 contended in his review petition that his conviction and sentence was due to public and political pressure.
“Death penalty is the premeditated and cold-blooded killing of a human being by the State in the name of justice… Death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights, goes against the principle of non-violence,” he said in the review petition.
