'Why Death Penalty When Delhi Pollution Is Making Life Short?' : Nirbhaya Convict Files Review In SC

Akshay Singh, one of the four death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case, has filed a belated review petition in the Supreme Court questioning the judgment delivered by the apex court on May 5, 2017 confirming the death penalty.

Apart from arguments against the merits of the judgment, he has raised certain strange contentions in the plea. According to him, death penalty was unnecessary as Delhi's deteriorating air and water quality shortened life span anyways.

"It is important to note here that air quality of Delhi-NCR and metro city is like a gas chamber.. Not only this, the water of Delhi-NCR is also full of poison. This fact is proved by the Government of India report submitted in the Parliament. Everyone is aware of what is happening in Delhi-NCR with regard to air and water. Life is going to be short, then why death penalty?", the petition filed through lawyer A P Singh said.

The petition added that in the present "Kal Yug", life span of people have reduced to 50-60 years when compared to the life spans of previous times. When a person faces the stark reailies of life and passes through adverse situations, he becomes no better than a dead body, he said in the review petition.

"Why death penalty? When age is reducing, it is mentioned in our Ved, Purans and Upanishads that in the age of Satyug people lived the life of thousand years. In the age of Dwapar they used to live for hundreds of the years But not it is Kalyug, in this era, age of human beings have reduced much. It has now come to 50-60 years, and rarely we listen of a person who is the age of 100 years.

Very few people reach upto the age of 80-90 years. This is almost a very true analysis. When we look around us then we come to the conclusion, more or less this analysis is true when a person faces the stark realities of life and passes through the adverse situation, then he is no better that a dead body [sic]."

The petition also quoted former Chief Justice of India P N Bhagwati to state that only the poor face death penalty while the rich escape the gallows.

"The petitioner belongs to poor but respected family and is the only care taker of the big family", stated the petition. 

Arguments on the inhuman nature of capital punishment are also made in the review petition.

The Supreme Court had dismissed the review petitions of the other three death row convicts - Mukesh Kumar, Vinay Sharma and Pawan Kumar Gupta- in July 2018. The Supreme Court had upheld the death penalty in May 2017.

The crime happened on December 16, 2012, when ffive adult men and a juvenile lured the 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist and her male friend onto a bus in Delhi, where they repeatedly raped the woman and beat both with a metal bar before dumping them on a road. The woman, later dubbed Nirbhaya (meaning fearless), died two weeks later of her injuries. Four of the adults were sentenced to death while the fifth hanged himself in prison.