[Kerala woman sentenced to death for murder in Yemen] Can't direct government to enter into negotiation with deceased's family: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a petition seeking a direction to the Central government to facilitate the family of a Kerala woman sentenced to death for the murder of a Yemeni national, to enter into negotiations with the deceased's family for payment of blood money [Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council Through its Chairman v Union of India and Anr]..A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Navin Chawla said that no such directions can be passed to the Central government. .The Bench noted that rather than facilitation, the petition effectively prayed that the government should enter into negotiations with the deceased's family and on this aspect that Centre has categorically said that it cannot enter into any such negotiations. The court agreed and said that no directions can be passed. "The submission of the learned counsel for the appellant is rather confused and in effect he desired that Union of India should negotiate with the family of the deceased victim to offer blood money. On this aspect the stand of Union is clear and no direction on the issue can be given,” the court noted in its order..The Court was dealing with an appeal filed by an organisation, Save Nimisha Priya, against the single-judge's order which refused to pass any direction to the Centre to initiate negotiations with the family of the murdered victim so that her life can be saved by them paying blood money -- the compensation paid by an offender or his kin to the family of the victim..A single-judge of the Delhi High Court had on March 7 requested the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to facilitate travel to Yemen of the family members of a woman. He, however, did not pass any directions to Centre with regard to negotiations with the deceased's family noting that the Court cannot command the government to enter into such negotiations..Nimisha Priya who worked as a nurse in Yemen, was convicted for a murder in 2017.It is alleged that she injected one Yemeni national Talal Abdo Mahdi with sedatives so that she could take her passport from him while he was unconscious. Mahdi, however, died of overdose, the plea filed through advocate Subhash Chandran KR said.It alleged that Mehdi had forged documents to show that he was married to Nimisha Priya. He had sought his help to start her own clinic but he cheated on her financially and later started torturing her, it was stated.A Yemeni court convicted her for the murder and sentenced her to death in 2020. The sentence was appealed before a Sana’a court, which rejected the case earlier this month.The plea before the High Court stated that even though another chance of appeal the Yemeni Supreme Court/Supreme Judicial Council exists with Priya, it is unlikely that she will be spared the punishment awarded by the lower court and therefore her only hope to come out of the death sentence is if the victim’s family accepts blood money.“Now, the only way for her to escape from the death penalty is to gain pardon from the family of the deceased by paying blood money to the family in accordance with the law of land. It is come to know from the lawyer who represented her before the appeal court that the option for „blood money‟ is kept open by the appeal court,” the plea stated.It said that Nimishal Priya's only child, a nine-year-old girl, is living in an orphanage, her mother is a domestic help in Kerala and her husband is an auto rickshaw driver. The entire family is facing serious challenges to deal with the ongoing legal processes there, the plea pointed out.“If family of the victim agreed to pardon her by receiving blood money, the petitioner is unable to pay the same as financial transactions to Yemen are also restricted by the Indian authorities. The petitioner herein as well as the family of Nimisha Priya has made many representations / communications to respondents regarding the case of Nimisha Priya but did not receive any positive reply from them,” the petition said..[Kerala woman sentenced to death in Yemen] Delhi High Court requests Central govt. to facilitate family's travel to Yemen