Nirbhaya convict challenges rejection of mercy petition

New Delhi: One of the death-row convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape case on Saturday moved the Supreme Court seeking a judicial review of the rejection of his mercy petition by the President of India.

Mukesh Kumar Singh has already had his curative plea as well as mercy plea rejected.

"A petition has been filed under Article 32 for judicial review of the manner of rejection of the mercy petition in terms of the judgement of Supreme Court in Shatrughan Chauhan case," advocate Vrinda Grover, who is representing Singh, said.

On January 14, the Supreme Court had refused to hear the curative petitions of Mukesh Singh and another convict, Vinay Sharma. Following this, Singh filed the mercy plea with President Ram Nath Kovind, who rejected it.

Singh also moved the Delhi High Court to set aside the death warrant issued by a trial court. Convicts Vinay Sharma, Mukesh Singh, Akshay Kumar Singh and Pawan Gupta were to be hanged inside Tihar Jail in Delhi on January 22, but the Delhi government told the High Court that they cannot be executed that day due to the mercy plea filed by Singh.

The executions are now scheduled for 6 am on February 1. Six men raped and brutally assaulted the 23-year-old woman in a moving bus in Delhi on the night of December 16, 2012. She succumbed to injuries two weeks later at a hospital in Singapore. The gangrape triggered huge protests in the national Capital and across India.

One of the convicts died in prison, while a minor was sent to a detention home for juveniles. He was released in December 2015. The four others were awarded the death penalty by a trial court in September 2013. The ruling was upheld by the Delhi High Court six months later and the Supreme Court in May 2017.

Three of the four – Vinay Sharma, Mukesh Singh and Pawan Gupta – filed review petitions against the punishment, but the Supreme Court rejected them in July 2018. The fourth, Akshay Kumar Singh, filed a review plea last month, and that too was rejected.