A five-judges bench headed by Justice NV Ramana on Thursday (January 30, 2020) rejected the Curative petition filedby Akshay, one of the convicts in the Nirbhaya rape and muder case. The convict requested for the commutation of his death sentence. The bench denied to commute his death penalty and upheld the execution date of 1st February.

While dismissing the petition, the bench made a mention of landmark case Rupa Ashok Hurra v. Ashok Hurra in which the concept of curative petition was introduced. The bench said, “We have gone through the curative petitions and the relevant documents. In our opinion, no case is made out within the parameters indicated in the decision of this court in Rupa Ashok Hurra v. Ashok Hurra & Another reported in 2002 (4) SCC 38. Hence the curative petitions are dismissed.”

Curative petition is the final legal remedy available to a convicted person by the court. The concept of this petition was invented in the above mentioned case where the question was whether an aggrieved person has a remedy after the dismissal of his review petition by the SC. Now the convict has the option of seeking mercy plea from the President.

The five judges bench comprised Justices N.V. Ramana, Arun Mishra, Rohinton Fali Nariman, R. Banumathi, and Ashok Bhushan.The bench heard the matter in his chamber.

On Wednesday (January 29, 2020), SC had also rejected the plea filed by Mukesh Kumar, another rape case convict, seeking judicial review of rejection of his mercy plea by the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind.

Author: Aditi Dubey