With the country witnessing outrage over increasing rape cases and President Ram Nath Kovind advocating that convicts of sexual offences against minors should be deprived of their right to mercy petition, the lawyers feel the chances of allowing the mercy plea of one of the convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape case are bleak.
The Union Home Ministry as well as Delhi government has recommended to the President to reject the mercy plea of Vinay Sharma, one of the convicts facing the gallows for the rape-and-murder of a 23-year-old paramedic student.
Senior advocate Vikas Pahwa said the chances of the convict getting any relief from the President in this case are bleak but the President has to decide the mercy petition independently and without any political interference.
Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra said if the President has indicated that convicts of sexual offences against minors should be deprived of their right to mercy petition, or if he rejects the mercy petition in Nirbhaya case, that is the end of the matter.
"If the President says no, unless it is set aside by the court, the execution of the convicts will take place," he said.
Pahwa said the chances of allowing or rejecting mercy petition depends on an individual case and in the Nirbhaya gang rape matter, the Supreme Court has already rejected the convicts' appeal as well as review petition and their death penalty was upheld.
"The chances of their getting any relief are bleak and I don't think the President will allow the mercy petition. But there should not be any political interference in it. The President should decide it independently on the basis of facts of the case," he said.
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Nirbhaya was gang raped on December 16, 2012. She later succumbed to her injuries. The brutality of the rape had rocked the nation leading to massive protests.
The recommendation for rejection of the mercy plea of the Nirbhaya gang rape convict comes at a time when there is nationwide outrage over the gang rape and murder of a 25-year-old veterinarian in Hyderabad.
The President, while addressing an event in Rajasthan's Abu Road on the issue of women safety, said "Incidents of demonic assaults on daughters shake the conscience of the country. It is the duty of every parent, citizens, yours and mine to strengthen among boys the sense of respect towards women."