The Government of India is doing whatever is "utmost possible" in the matter pertaining to an Indian nurse who is facing execution for murder in Yemen on July 16, the Centre on Monday told the Supreme Court.
Attorney General R Venkataramani told a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta that having regard to the sensitivity and status of Yemen as a place, there is nothing much the Government of India can do.
While the government did say it was trying its best to save Nimisha through private channels, but there was only so far it could go.
"There is a point up to which the Government of India can go and we have reached that point. Yemen is not like any other part of the world. We didn't want to complicate situation by going public, we are trying at private level," the top law officer said.
"There's nothing much government can do...looking at sensitivity of Yemen...it's not diplomatically recognized," AG Venkataramani, the government's counsel, was quoted as saying by Live Law.
On the AG's submissions, Justice Sandeep Mehta said, "The real cause of concern is the manner in which the incident took place. It's very sad if she loses her life."
The AG asserted that the Centre was trying to do something to save their citizen and will "continue to make efforts."
He said mother of Priya was there in Yemen along with a social worker to negotiate with the family of the deceased for blood money.
"The only thing that is possible today to avoid death sentence is the family of the deceased agreeing to accept blood money," the counsel said, pointing out they were not asking for funds from the government and would themselves arrange the money.
Venkataramani referred to the Houthis in Yemen and said it was not even diplomatically recognised.
"Blood money is a private negotiation," he said.
The bench said, "They (petitioner) are saying they may be able to arrange for the blood money. The only question is the negotiating link." Venkataramani said Yemen was not like any other part of the world where the government, through a diplomatic process or an inter-governmental negotiation, can sought something.
"It is very complex," he said, "and we don't want to complicate the situation by going too much public".
Venkataramani added, "And probably we got some kind of an informal communication saying probably the execution is kept under abeyance. We don't know how far to believe that." He said there was no way the government could get to know what was really happening in Yemen.
"The real cause of concern is the manner in which the incident took place and in spite thereof, if she looses her life, that is really sad," the bench remarked.
The remarks came during a hearing of a plea seeking government intervention in stopping the execution, planned for July 16.
Slating the matter for further hearing on July 18, the SC bench asked the Centre to try and open informal channels and apprise the court of what happened and "if there is any good news."
Earlier, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to intervene in the matter related to Nimisha Priya facing the death penalty in Yemen.
"Kindly find enclosed my letter dated March 24, 2025, to the Union Minister for External Affairs. It is learnt from the Media that the execution of Smt. Nimisha Priya Tomy Thomas has been fixed for July 16, 2025. Considering the fact that this is a case deserving sympathy, I appeal to the Hon'ble Prime Minister to take up the matter and intervene with the authorities concerned to save the life of Nimisha Priya", the letter said.
Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya is two days away from execution in Yemen for the 2017 murder of her alleged abuser and business partner.
The facts of the case go that Nimisha partnered with Mahdi, who allegedly stopped sharing profits and began harassing her. According to Nimisha’s family, Mahdi seized her passport, physically abused her, and forged documents to falsely claim she married him to make her escape impossible.
In 2017, Nimisha injected Mahdi with sedatives to recover her passport. He died from an overdose. She and her colleague then tried to dispose of the body.
In 2020, a local court sentenced her to death. Yemen SC rejected her appeal in 2023.
The President later approved her execution.
Under Islamic law, the victim’s family can pardon her in exchange for ‘diyah’ that is blood money. Her supporters have offered up to $1 million, equivalent to Rs 8.5 crore, but the victim’s family is yet to respond.
In the previous hearing, the SC had asked Centre through the Attorney General, what the status of the case was and what steps had been taken by the Centre, if any, so far. The prayer sought to facilitate effective diplomatic interventions to save the life of the nurse at an embassy level as well as facilitate negotiations with the victim’s family for paying blood money.
Petitioners told the court that blood money has been arranged and they are willing to pay more, but negotiations have not yielded results due to the Yemeni authorities’ stance.