Nirbhaya convicts approach SC to stay their hanging, hearing at 2:30 AM

The Supreme Court will hear the petition filed by death row convicts in Nirbhaya case at 2.30 a.m. on Friday after the convicts, through their lawyer AP Singh, approached the apex court and sought an urgent hearing for staying their execution scheduled at 5:30 a.m. today.

Advocate AP Singh approached the Registrar of the Supreme Court and sought an early hearing immediately after the Delhi High Court refused to stay the hanging to be done at Delhi's Tihar central jail.

"We are seeking urgent hearing and stay on death warrant. We are filing the petition in the Supreme Court, the court is open and working," AP Singh told ANI after meeting the registrar at his residence.

"I will go to the Supreme Court when I get the order copy. I have spoken to the Registrar, I will go to him," Singh had said soon after the High Court pronounced its verdict .

All four convicts - Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma, and Mukesh Singh - are scheduled to be hanged at 5:30 am today.

Meanwhile, Nirbhaya's mother Asha Devi said, "Convicts were given a lot of time, many pleas were filed to delay the execution. Their plea has been dismissed in High Court, we are going to Supreme Court, it will be dismissed there too. Convicts will be hanged this morning."

In a hearing that lasted for around two hours, the Delhi High Court pulled up AP Singh for not adhering to prerequisite technicalities before filing the petition.

A Division Bench of Justice Manmohan and Justice Sanjeev Narula was hearing the plea of three convicts -- Akshay Singh Thakur, Vinay Sharma and Pawan Gupta.

The High Court observed that there is no foundation given in the petition. "It has been filed without any index, list of dates, memo of parties, annexure or any affidavits," the High Court stated.

Earlier on Thursday, a Delhi court had refused to stay the execution of the four death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case.

The Supreme Court also dismissed a petition filed by Mukesh Singh challenging a Delhi High Court's order rejecting his claim that he was not in the national capital when the crime was committed.

The case pertains to the brutal gang-rape and killing of a 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus on the night of December 16, 2012, by six people including a juvenile in the national capital. The woman had died at a Singapore hospital a few days later.