HC dismisses convict's plea claiming juvenility in 2012

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday dismissed the claim of one of the four convicts, facing the gallows in the Nirbhaya gang rape-and-murder case, that he was a juvenile at the time of the offence in December 2012 and deprecated the conduct of his advocate for filing forged documents and not appearing in the court.

Justice Suresh Kumar Kait noted that convict Pawan Kumar Gupta had earlier raised the juvenility claim in his review petition against the death penalty awarded to him in the case before the Supreme Court which had dismissed his plea on July 9 last year.

Irked over the conduct of advocate A P Singh, who filed the petition for Pawan, the high court imposed a cost of Rs 25,000 on the the counsel for playing "hide and seek".

The court said the amount be deposited within one week in favour of 'Nirmal Chhaya' for the welfare of destitute women and children.

It also asked Bar Council of Delhi to take action against the advocate for filing forged affidavit in the court regarding the convict's age and added that without applying his mind or deliberately he filed the documents to delay the process.

Singh appeared in the court at 10:30 AM and mentioned the matter for seeking an adjournment on the pretext of filing some additional documents, without informing the other party. On his request, the court had adjourned the plea for January 24.

Minutes thereafter, additional public prosecutor for Delhi Police Sanjay Lau and advocates Jitendra Jha and Seema Samriddhi Kushwaha, representing the parents of the victim, informed the court that the issue of juvenility was already decided by the Supreme Court.

They said the convict's plea was not maintainable and it was filed to delay and drag the matter so that execution of death sentence does not take place in near future.

The victim's parents were also present during the hearing in the court.

The judge, through his staff, sent several communications via phone, SMS and e-mail to the advocate to appear before the court as the matter would be again taken up.

However, Singh did not "bother" to come to the court when the matter was again taken up after 2:30 PM or respond to any of the communications, the judge noted in his order.

Pawan had earlier filed before a trial court the plea claiming to be juvenile at the time of the offence and it was dismissed on December 21 last year. He challenged the trial court's order now in the high court.

Pawan, in his plea, claimed that as per his school certificate his date of birth was October 8, 1996.

However, as per the age verification report of the police, his father had stated that he was born on June 17, 1992, which meant he was over 18 years of age at the time of the offence on December 16, 2012.