AMN /
The juvenile offender of the horrific December16 Nirbhaya gangrape case is all set to walk free today as the Supreme Court has refused the dramatic post-midnight move of the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) to stay his release by giving an urgent hearing. A vacation bench comprising Justices A K Goel and U U Lalit in their order pronounced at 2 AM today posted the matter for hearing on Monday.
However, DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal and the lawyers of the women’s panel hoped that since the matter has become sub judice, the government and Delhi Police will not release the juvenile offender. She told reporters outside the residence of Justice Goel that she hopes the government and the Delhi Police will wait for one day.
The Special Leave Petition filed by DCW against the order of the Delhi High Court, which refused to restrain the release of the convict, was referred by the Chief Justice of India T S Thakur before the vacation bench. Lawyers associated with the case, including senior advocate Guru Krishna Kumar and Devdutt Kamath, had rushed to Justice Goel’s residence at around 1.30 AM after Maliwal was told by the Registrar that the matter has been assigned to the vacation bench.
The High Court had earlier refused to restrain the convict’s release citing that there is no legal provision for the action. Maliwal reached the Chief Justice of India’s residence around midnight and later arrived at the Registrar’s office in the apex court premises.
The convict, who is now 20 years old and was known to be the most brutal of the attackers, has been taken to an undisclosed location from a correction home in North Delhi amid concerns that there was a threat to his life.