New Delhi: A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a curative petition filed by Akshay Kumar Singh, one of the four death row convicts in 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case.
The bench said that no case was made out in the curative petition filed by Akshay.
Meanwhile, he has also requested the Patiala House Court in Delhi for a stay on February 1 hanging, stating that the convicts still have legal options to pursue.
According to the law, none of the four convicts can be hanged till they have exhausted their legal remedies. Moreover, a death convict gets 14 days to mentally prepare for hanging and compete for other formalities after the mercy petition is rejected by the President according to an 2014 SC order.
Another convict Vinay Sharma’s mercy petition pending with President Ram Nath Kovind. He filed the mercy petition directly to the President on Wednesday. “The mercy petition is expected to reach Tihar Jail in a couple of days and as per the norms, the jail superintendent will have to stay the hanging of all four convicts,” a report published in the Outlook said.
Besides, the death sentence of Mukesh, who has exhausted all his remedies, cannot be executed since a 1982 SC order says that death row convicts involved in one incident of crime cannot be hanged separately.
His curative petition was earlier dismissed by the top court and his mercy plea was rejected by the President. A petition challenging the rejection was also dismissed by the SC.
Pawan Gupta — the fourth convict — is yet to file a curative petition or a mercy plea.
