(Image source from: punjabi.hindustantimes.com)

The guidelines for expeditious hearing of the criminal appeals which involves a death penalty has been made by the Supreme Court.

This decision has been made by the Supreme Court following the delay that is being made regarding the execution of the four death convicts in the Nirbhaya gang- rape and murder case.

A deadline has been fixed by the apex court and the deadline is said to be of six months from the date of the verdict of the high court, for hearing an appeal that has been made against the cases of death sentence.

A circular has been made public on Friday which says that in a matter wherein the confirmation of the death penalty or the death penalty has been upheld by the High Court and the leave regarding the admission of the case has been granted by the Supreme Court, the criminal appeals would be listed for hearing not exceeding the six months before the three- judges bench from date the leave has been granted being irrespective of the fact whether the appeal is ready or not.

The circular has said that as soon as a petition has been filed regarding the special leave which involves the death penalty, a communication may be sent from the Registry to the court that has been appealed from in order to make ready and dispatch the certificate of service as well as the original record to the court within the period of 60 days or with in further such period that has been fixed by the court after the receipt of the intimation regarding the filing of such special leave petition along with the documents being translated in the vernacular language, if any.

The circular has also said that filing of additional documents may be insisted by the Registry on the grant of leave by the court and that the insisting for filing of the additional documents by the parties that it should be done within 30 days after the receipt of the intimation in this regard from the Registry.

As per the practice that is being in existence, the matter may be listed before the judge in the chambers before the Registrar court regarding the event records of the additional documents which have not been received or have not been filed, says the circular which had been dated as the 12th of February.

A trial court has stayed “till further order” regarding the execution of the four convicts of the Nirbhaya gang- rape and murder case. The four convicts are said to be Mukesh Kumar Singh of 32 years old, Pawan gupta og 25 years of age, Vinay Kumar Sharma of 26 years of age and Akshay Kumar identified as 31 years old.

The Nirbhaya case has shook the entire country in the year 2012 when a young woman has been gang- raped and molested in a moving bus and was later dumped into the streets of Delhi after being tortured. She had passed away in a Singapore hospital. This case of gang- rape and murder has been named as Nirbhaya which means being strong and fearless.

The delay in the tactics that are being adopted by the accused in order to avail the legal remedies has been triggering the citizens.

By Shrithika Kushangi