2012 Delhi gangrape convicts may file curative petition challenging capital punishment

NEW DELHI: The four convicts in the 2012 Delhi gangrape case may file a curative petition, challenging their capital punishment. 

The convicts' counsel informed the Delhi's Patiala House Court of the likely development on Saturday. 

Tihar jail authorities also communicated the same to the court, reported news agency ANI. The authorities will file a status report in the case on the next date of scheduled hearing, April 6.

Twenty-three-year-old paramedic, Nirbhaya, was gang-raped by five men and a juvenile in a moving bus in Delhi on December 16, 2012. She passed away 13 days later. The incident sparked a massive outrage across the nation.

The five convicts were awarded death penalty by the Delhi High Court in March 2014.

On July 9, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and comprising Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice R. Bhanumathi, upheld the death sentence awarded to four of the accused in May 2017 after three of them, Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, and Pawan Gupta filed a petition in the court to review the judgment.

Akshay Singh, the fourth convict, did not file a review petition against his death sentence.

The leader and the fifth member of the gang, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide in jail nearly three months after the crime, while the juvenile was convicted by the Juvenile Justice Board and was let off in December 2015 after serving three years in a reformation home. 

A curative petition is the final judicial resort which can be pleaded for a review in any judgment or decision passed by the Supreme Court.