Nirbhaya Verdict:: Changed the Nation

Finally, today on 03/19/2020, In the morning at 5.30 AM, Nirbhaya, A Medical student who got raped brutally and murdered in the moving bus in December 2012, the Brutal rape and murder case convicts got hanged at Tihar jail after last-minute plea got rejected by the supreme court.

The question here is why justice got delayed and what exactly happened in 7 years which become the main reason for delaying the justice to Nirbhaya.

As back in December 2012, when the crime was committed, after the offense the people were become so angry about the administration and wanted to give justice to Nirbhaya as the girl died in the hospital after few days of the crime.

The crime changes the nation’s perspective onoffenses like rape, People demanding a change in the system and make the law stronger for women in India.

As the convicts got arrested by the police and then the trial begins as the case was from the very beginning was in the favor of the girl who was died in this crime, then what took so long to come on a final decision for the courts.

As the lawyers find out the loopholes to save the criminals for the penalty as the public has demanded capital punishment for the Nirbhaya convicts.

The chronological events say that by Sep 2013 the trial court has ordered the capital punishment for all 4 convicts, then they appeal in the HC and SC where both courts reserves verdict on their appeals.

It’s a long list as they file a review petition in the high court and supreme courts as they were filing it one by one so that was the main reason that it took so long to conclude on one judgment, as the court cannot take the right to appeal to the upper court and to the president as well so they had to put the stay on the execution of the accused as courts are abode by the law.

After the incident, in response to public outcry over a brutal gang rape Indian government has passed an ordinance that applied the death penalty in cases of rape that leads to death or leaves the victim in a "Persistent Vegetative State".

In January 2014, a three-judge panel commuted sentences of 15 death row convicts, ruling that the "inordinate and inexplicable delay is a ground for commuting death penalty to a life sentence, the judges Panel also passed a set of guidelines for the execution of a death row convict, which includes a 14-day gap from the receipt of communication of the rejection of the mercy petition to the scheduled execution date.

Then we come to the Curative Petition that was evolved by SC of India after disposal of the review petition the accused can file a curative petition, and Nirbhaya convicts wanted to use all of them.

As the law does not rely always on the victims, but it also see the other side where the accused is, so as a part of the Constitution of India all citizens have the right to get justice so the law has to follow that as well as they cannot implement the decision with negligence of it. Law is giving equal rights to get justice for both victims and the accused persons.

There comes the power of the president in the capital punishment, The President shall have the power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any person convicted of any offense.

In Nirbhaya case the accused was trying to get the each and every loopholes to save from the capital punishment and they were using their right to appeals one by one and at the very end moment they were filing the petition to the courts and at last to the president of India so by law, if the petition is pending anywhere then the court has to put stay on the execution and they cannot execute the punishment.

Indian law is very strong where it keeps the balance of the system and country so that the real accused cannot walk free and the Victim can get justice.

Although it’s delayed due to the law is made that way where the right victim get justice and the real accused get punishment, and we will not call it “delayed justice” but our system is made to think twice and decide in such sensitive matters where the real criminals can be punished and the justice can be done.