Death Penalty
The role of the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court has been extremely unconscionable. The High Court not only heard Pawan's petition against the order rejecting his plea of juvenility, in the absence of his attorney, but also fined and passed strictures against the defence attorney for adopting 'delaying tactics'. It needs to be noted that all that Mukesh pleaded was juvenility based on primary school records which as per law must be given primacy over any other record. On 20th January the Supreme Court rejected Pawan's special leave petition and earlier Mukesh's curative petition within a day each. Amidst the retributive hysteria ratcheted up by the media, the political leadership and reinforced by the judiciary over the delay in execution, remembering Dhananjoy Chatterjee who was executed for the 1990 rape and murder of a young girl can be instructive. The widespread demand for executing Chatterjee, including from influential figures in public life ensured that his trial and appeals completed in record time and his mercy petition rejected by the President in 1994. But then the Government and the Prosecution forgot to vacate the stay Dhananjoy had obtained in 1994, and when it woke up ten years later in 2004—time Dhananjoy had spent on death row, a large part in solitary confinement—summarily executed him.

Historically, hangings have served political goals of ruling regimes in sensitive times and the executions of Ajmal Kasab, Afzal Guru and Yakub Memon which happened in quick succession (2012, 2013, 2015) illustrate this need especially since they happened after a decade-long moratorium on the death penalty. It cannot be reiterated enough that the crime against Nirbhaya was horrifically unspeakable and that the accused deserve exemplary punishment. But what the people are witnessing is the political nature of death penalty supposedly being done in the name of curbing crimes against women. The hanging of the tour convicts today serves the political goals of the ruling regime, of creating a spectacle of lawless state violence being unfurled to serve the BJP government's self-projection as being tough on crimes against women.

Evidence from across the globe testifies to the failure of the death penalty to act as a deterrent to crime. Sexual crimes against women and resultant punishments are woven in the social and political fabric of society, as illustrated in the wilfully botched up investigation in the abduction, gang-rape and murder of an eight year old in Kathua in 2018 as well as in the communal and political support that the perpetrators enjoyed. Addressing sexual violence needs measures that ensure accountability of not only perpetrators but also of the state and other actors often complicit in creating impunity. Hanging four convicts in such a situation is a bizarre form of retributive justice that needs to be opposed and rejected.
Radhika Chitkara and Vikas Kumar
Secretaries, PUDR

CJP in Action
There are awards and there are rewards...at times it's hard to distinguish between the two. At Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) foot soldiers have been relentless in their efforts to ensure victory, such as ensuring due process and right documentation is maintained at the Foreigners Tribunals or helping those who have been illegally detained in detention camps as well as those anguished by worry.

Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) has been involved in a three-year long volunteer-led movement in Assam where the CJP for Assam Initiative has already helped 10 lakh people (10,00,000) fill in their NRC forms. These are persons from the most marginalised sections, disempowered and living in the most far-flung areas. CJP has helped release some people from detention camps, counseled suicidal citizens and filed intervention applications in the Supreme Court. Now CJP is using this invaluable field experience with 700 volunteers in Assam to generate literature on the issue of an all India NRC and conduct nationwide trainings!

CJP has made a multi-faceted intervention in Assam to help ensure that the maximum number of claims' forms are filled.

CJP is also committed in taking forward issues apart from the NRC issue that has recently seen exacerbation. The slow burn caused by the DF (Declared Foreigners) issue where the Assam Border Police has been for decades implicated and the "D" Voter (Doubtful Voter) where the Election Commission (EC) has been drawn in are also related issues that CJP is giving attention to. CJP has been well recognised for its fearless and consistent legal initiative post the Gujarat carnage of 2002. Drawing from this experience, CJP is now set to create a network of lawyers from the Foreigner Tribunals (FTs) upwards to the Guwahati HC and SC.
Citizens for Justice
and Peace (CJP)

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Frontier
Vol. 52, No. 40, April 5 - 11, 2020