Hanging Of Man Who Raped, Killed 3-Year-Old Put On Hold By Supreme Court

New Delhi/ Surat: The hanging of a man - convicted in the rape and murder of a three-year-old in Gujarat's Surat - was put on hold today by the Supreme Court, nearly a week before his execution.

A Surat court had ordered the hanging of Anil Surendra Yadav on February 29. He was sentenced to death for rape and murder of a three-year-old girl in Surat in October 2018.

The hanging was put on hold after Anil Surendra Yadav moved the top court and his lawyer argued that death warrant can't be issued before all legal remedies are exhausted.

Yadav has 60 days to file his appeal in the top court and a death warrant can't be issued before that, his lawyer Aparajitha Singh argued.

After hearing the arguments, Chief Justice SA Bobde said, "In spite of Supreme Court judgement, which had said that death warrant can't be issued before all legal remedies are exhausted, how can a judge pass such orders? Judicial process can't be (ignored) like this."

Chief Justice Bobde asked Solicitor General to take note of the case because top court had earlier agreed to examine centre's petition to set a seven-day time limit for convicts to use their last available legal options before execution.

The petition asked for a modification in a past Supreme Court judgment on the rights of death row convicts and said there should be a time limit for a curative petition after the Supreme Court rejects all previous pleas.

The current rules are skewed towards convicts and allows them to "play with the law and delay execution," the centre said in its petition, amid anger over a delay in the Nirbhaya convicts' hanging.

A court in Surat had sentenced Yadav, who is from Bihar, to death under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POSCO) Act. The death sentence was upheld by the Gujarat High Court on December 27.

(Inputs from ndtv.com)