Nirbhaya Case: SC rejects curative pleas of convicts ahead of hanging

The Supreme Court rejected curative petitions filed by two of the four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case on Tuesday afternoon. The curative petitions were filed by Vinay Sharma and Mukesh Kumar. The two are currently on death row in the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case.

The petitions were dismissed by five-judge bench in-chambers including Justices N V Ramana, Arun Mishra, R F Nariman, R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan.

Of the four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case, Akshay Kumar Singh (31) and Pawan Gupta (25) -- the two other convicts haven't filed curative petitions yet.

All four convicts had previously filed review petitions and the Supreme Court rejected the pleas. A curative petition is the last judicial remedy available to a person convicted by courts of law. If curative petitions are rejected, convicts have the option of seeking mercy from the President.

The Supreme Court hearing Tuesday on the two convicts' curative petitions took place days after a Delhi court issued 'death warrants' for the four men convicted in the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case. The court directed authorities at Tihar jail, where the men are imprisoned, to hang the four convicts at 7 am on January 22.

The Case:

The four men were convicted for brutally raping and murdering a 23-year-old paramedic student, who came to be referred to as Nirbhaya in 2012. The woman was gang-raped and assaulted on the night of December 16, 2012 in a moving bus in South Delhi. She died on December 29 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.