The Supreme Court said that if a convict in the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case files any petition, it will be the court's top priority, since the rapists are going to be executed on February 1. Mukesh Kumar Singh's counsel asked to approach the registry of the court for an urgent listing of his plea against rejection of mercy petition by the President.
New Delhi: Supreme Court on Monday (January 27) asked the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder convict, Mukesh Kumar Singh's counsel to approach the registry of the court for an urgent listing of his plea against rejection of mercy petition by the President.
A bench, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde, noted that any matter in this case is of top priority since convicts are going to be executed on February 1.
On Saturday, Mukesh had approached the Supreme Court challenging the rejection of his mercy petition by the President of India and sought commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment.
Earlier, the Supreme Court's five-judge bench, headed by Justice NV Ramana, dismissed the curative petitions of Mukesh and another death row convict Vinay Kumar Sharma.
After the dismissal of the curative petition by the Supreme Court, Mukesh had filed a mercy petition before the President of India, who rejected the plea.
Mercy petition is the last constitutional recourse that a death row convict can exhaust.
On December 16, 2012, a 23-year-old paramedical student was brutally gang-raped in a moving bus by six men (including a juvenile), in Delhi.
One of the accused, out of five adult accused, Ram Singh, had committed suicide in the Tihar jail during the trial of the case.
Apart from Mukesh, three other convicts - Pawan Kumar Gupta, Vinay Kumar Sharma, and Akshay Kumar Singh - are facing the gallows in the matter.
Last Updated Jan 27, 2020, 3:21 PM IST