The Delhi High Court today refused to set aside the death warrant against the four Nirbhaya case convicts after the state government said their execution ”will surely not take place” on January 22 because of a mercy plea filed by one of them.
The court said the convict was free to approach the trial court, which issued the death warrant, and inform him about mercy petition.
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Vinay Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Akshay Kumar Singh and Pawan Gupta are to be hanged next Wednesday at 7 am in Tihar jail, the trial court judge had declared, signing a death warrant seven years after a young medical student was gang-raped on a moving bus, tortured and killed in December 2012.
Mukesh Singh filed a mercy petition yesterday. Even after it is rejected, a convict has to be given 14 days’ notice before execution.
Under the rules, said Tihar jail, it would have to wait for the mercy plea to be decided by the President before executing the death warrant. Lawyer Rahul Mehra, representing the Delhi government, said: “The fate of a death convict comes to finality only after his mercy plea is rejected by the President.”
None of the four convicts can be executed on January 22 unless the mercy plea is decided, the court was told.
Through his petition, the convict has informed the court that his mercy petition is pending before the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi and the President of India and he should be given a minimum 14 days notice between the rejection of his mercy petition and scheduled date of execution.
Earlier, Supreme Court dismissed curative petitions of the two death row convicts, including Mukesh Singh, in the 2012 gang-rape case.
(With ANI Inputs)