Fresh death warrants were issued by a Delhi court on January 17 for the hanging of Vinay Sharma (26), Akshay Kumar Singh (31), Mukesh Kumar Singh (32) and Pawan (26) on February 1 after their hanging scheduled in Tihar jail on January 22 was postponed due to pending petitions.
The execution faced a delay because the convicts had not exhausted all of the legal remedies at their rescue.
Stressing that the "need of the hour" was to lay down guidelines in "the interest of the victims" rather than keeping the rights of the convicts in mind, the Centre said those punished for "horrible, dreadful, cruel, abominable, ghastly, gruesome and heinous offences" like rape and murder should be not permitted to play with the "majesty of law" and prolong the execution of the sentence awarded to them.
The judicial system conducts elaborate scrutiny, through a phased legal process, with respect to execution of the death sentence.
The apex court through a common judgment and order on January 21, 2014 --(Shatrughan Chauhan) and other connected matters - laid down certain guidelines with respect to the procedure to be followed for filing mercy petitions, filed either by the convicts awarded death sentence or their family members or others, like the People's Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR), and execution of the death sentence keeping in account the interest of the death-row convicts.
"These guidelines, however, don't take into account an irreparable mental trauma, agony, upheaval and derangement of the victims and their family members, the collective conscience of the nation and the deterrent effect, which the capital punishment intends to make," said the MHA.
The MHA said the apex court had stated that once the convict came to know of his ultimate fate, it was de-humanising to delay execution of the death sentence.
(Additional inputs from PTI)