he Supreme Court on Friday held a rare post-midnight hearing for the 4 Nirbhaya case convicts who were hanged later in the morning. This was one of the rare few occasions when the Supreme Court opened its doors late in the night to hear urgent pleas on hangings of convicts.
The Supreme Court heard convict Pawan Kumar Gupta’s last-ditch plea at 2:30 am and dismissed it. Pawan challenged the rejection of his second mercy petition before the President.
The court heard lawyer AP Singh’s appeal 3:15 am and gave an ear to all his arguments about Pawan being a juvenile at the time of the crime. The appeal was dismissed.
With the rejection of plea of Pawan, the legal hurdles were cleared for hanging of all the four convicts, including Vinay Kumar, Mukesh Singh and Akshay Singh.
Hours later, the four Nirbhaya case convicts were hanged at 5:30 am at the Tihar Jail.
In the recent years, Supreme Court has opened its doors post-midnight only on a few rare occasions and three of them involved appeals against death penalties.
YAKUB MEMON HANGING
On July 30, 2015, the corridors of Supreme Court woke up at 3:15 am for the first time in many years. This was just a few hours before he was to be hanged at the Nagpur jail. Convicted in the 1993 serial blasts case, Yakub Memon was ordered to be hanged when he knocked on the doors of the Supreme Court saying he deserves 14 days’ time after the rejection of mercy petition.
Yakub Memon’s lawyers reached the CJI’s residence at 11 pm triggering rumours of a rare midnight hearing. This was one of the rare few times that the country was about to witness a court hearing to give all possible legal avenues to a convicted terrorist who was behind the deaths over 200 people. The courtroom was abuzz at 4 am and within a few hours the court dismissed Yakub Memon’s last appeal.
He was hanged after a few hours.
NITHARI KILLINGS
Businessman Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Surinder Koli were given the death sentence for the killings of around 16 children as the case was classified rarest of the rare. The two were found guilty of serial murders conducted between 2005 and 2006.
In 2014, when lawyers of Surinder Koli, who was convicted and handed the death sentence for the infamous Nithari killings, moved the Supreme Court merely two hours before his hanging was to take place in Meerut.
The matter was heard by the Supreme Court after a ‘black warrant’ was issued and his hanging was scheduled for early morning. The Supreme Court gave Koli some respite by postponing the date of hanging and also agreed to hear a review petition challenging dismissal of his mercy petition.
The Supreme Court stopped Koli’s hanging saying the delay in his execution holds grounds for commutation.
In 2019, a CBI court has once again given the death sentence to Surinder Koli for the murder of a 14-year-old girl who was one of the victims of the serial murders in Nithari.
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