Nirbhaya case: Convicts get one week to exhaust all legal remedies

The Nirbhaya convicts now have a weeks’ time to exhaust legal remedies against their hanging, after which, the trial court will begin proceedings for their execution

New Delhi: Delhi high court on February 5 granted the four convicts on death row in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case, a week's time to exhaust all legal remedies available to them. After this the trial court will begin proceedings for their execution, the Delhi high court said today.

The judges refused to hang the convicts separately, which was also part of the Centre's request. The court added that the Delhi prison rules do not say that if mercy petition of one convict is pending, the execution of the other convicts can take place.

"Since upto the Supreme Court their fate has been decided by a common judgment, I am of the opinion that death warrant of all convicts should be executed together and not separately," Justice Suresh Kumar Kait said.

The high court also dismissed the petition filed by the Central government and Tihar jail authorities challenging the Patiala House Court's order which had stayed the execution of the convicts in the matter.

The court had on Sunday reserved its order in the matter after hearing arguments from all the sides.

A Delhi court had earlier stayed till further orders, the execution of the four convicts - Akshay Thakur, Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, and Vinay Sharma -- which was earlier scheduled to take place on February 1.

Nirbhaya:

A 23-year-old paramedical student was gang-raped and murdered in a moving bus on the night of December 16, 2012, by six people, including a juvenile in Delhi. The woman succumbed to injuries at a Singapore hospital a few days later.