The Bombay High Court Friday stayed the execution of two death row convicts in the 2007 Pune BPO employee gang-rape and murder case till further orders.
The two convicts -- Purushottam Borate and Pradeep Kokade -- were to be hanged to death at Pune's Yerwada prison on June 24. They were awarded the death penalty by a court in Pune for the rape and murder of a female BPO employee in 2007.
The duo had last month moved the high court, seeking a stay on the execution of their death warrants on the ground there has been an "inordinate delay" in deciding on their mercy petitions by the Maharashtra governor and the president.
They had also cited a delay in issuance of the warrants for execution of the death penalty, which they want to be commuted to life imprisonment.
A division bench Friday was informed by the convicts' counsel, Yug Chaudhry, that the Centre has declined to hand over to them four documents pertaining to recommendations made by officers in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) internally in the case after which a report was sent to the president.
On the basis of this report and facts of the case, the president had rejected the convicts' mercy petitions in May 2017.
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According to Chaudhry, the Central Information Commission (CIC) on June 16 this year directed the Union government to hand over the said documents to the applicants (Kokade and Borate).
The bench, headed by Justice B P Dharmadhikari, noted that at this stage, when a date has already been fixed for execution of the death penalty, opportunity should be given to the convicts to fight their case.
The court directed the Union government to file their affidavit stating if they are willing to give those documents to the petitioners.
"The scheduled execution on June 24, 2019 shall not take place until further orders," Justice Dharmadhikari said and posted the petitions for further hearing on June 25.
The petitions have claimed that the "inordinate delay" in executing them violated their fundamental rights