Nirbhaya case: Supreme Court to deliver order on convict Mukesh Singh’s petition challenging mercy plea rejection

By Team Newsable | First Published Jan 29, 2020, 9:51 AM IST

Supreme Court will pronounce the verdict on Nirbhaya convict Mukesh Singh's plea challenging mercy plea rejection on Wednesday. Another convict Akshay had filed curative petition in the top court on Tuesday.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court will on Wednesday pronounce its verdict on a petition filed by one of the four Nirbhaya gang rape and murder convicts, Mukesh Kumar Singh, challenging the rejection of his mercy petition by President Ram Nath Kovind.

A three-judge bench of the apex court headed by Justice R Banumathi and comprising Justice AS Bopanna and Justice Ashok Bhushan had heard the arguments in the matter on Tuesday and will pronounce its order at 10.30 am today.

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Four convicts Mukesh Kumar Singh, Pawan Kumar Gupta, Vinay Kumar Sharma, and Akshay Kumar Singh are facing execution on February 1 in the matter.

Mukesh’s advocate Anjana Prakash, who appeared on behalf of him, has alleged that her client was physically and sexually assaulted in Tihar Jail and put under solitary confinement.

The counsel said that the "Presidential pardon is a Constitutional duty of great responsibility, which must be exercised keeping in mind the greater good of the people".

"Solitary confinement and procedural lapses are the grounds for considering this case ... Undue delay in hearing the petition and the due and prescribed procedure was not followed in this case," advocate Anjana told the court.

She argued that the documents were placed before the President of India without application of mind.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing on behalf of the Delhi government, said that even death convicts have to be treated fairly under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution but opposed the plea of the death row convict.

He highlighted that the trial court, Delhi high court, and the Supreme Court had awarded and upheld the death penalty to the convicts in the case while considering their medical condition.

The 23-year-old paramedical student was brutally gang-raped in a moving bus on December 16, 2012, by six people, including a juvenile in Delhi. One of the accused, out of five adult accused, Ram Singh had committed suicide in the Tihar jail during the trial of the case.

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