Nirbhaya Case: SC To Hear Centre's Plea On Convicts' Hanging Today

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the Union government's plea challenging the Delhi High Court's order in the Nirbhaya case relating to the hanging of the convicts today. The Delhi High Court, had on Wednesday, stated that all four convicts, Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Singh and Pawan Gupta will hang together.

The Delhi High Court, in its Wednesday order, also gave the convicts on death row a weeks' time to exhaust all their legal options. The Centre has challenged this order and has sought separate hanging of the convicts if necessary, pointing out that the mercy pleas of three of them have been rejected. Pawan Gupta is yet to file a mercy plea.

The Centre put forth the argument that convicts who have exhausted their legal options should be sent to the gallows. The Union government has pointed out that the death row convicts are using delaying tactics to stall the inevitable.

Meanwhile, Tihar Jail authorities have approached the lower court seeking a fresh death warrant for all the four convicts whose hanging scheduled for February 1, had been postponed.

The hanging of the four convicts had also become a debating point in the Delhi assembly elections with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and BJP trading charges over the delay in the hanging, blaming each other.