Nirbhaya case: Supreme Court to hear convict Pawan Gupta's curative petition on Monday

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday (March 2) will hear the curative petition of one of death row convicts in Nirbhaya case, Pawan Gupta, who approached the top court on Sunday seeking a direction that his plea should be heard in an open court. The convict`s lawyer AP Singh submitted this plea as the matter is related to the death penalty. 

"The apex court had on Saturday fixed the curative petition for a hearing on Monday at 10.25 am in a chamber by a five-judge bench, headed by Justice N V Ramana. Pawan had filed the curative petition before the top court on Friday, seeking its direction to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment," Singh told ANI.

The five-judge Constitution bench headed by Justice NV Ramana will also comprise Justice Arun Mishra, Justice RF Nariman, Justice R Banumathi and Justice Ashok Bhushan.

On Friday, Pawan Gupta had filed a curative petition before the apex court seeking commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment. He is the fourth convict in the case to file a curative petition. 

The Supreme Court has already rejected the curative petitions of the three other convicts. The petition comes in the wake of a fresh death warrant being issued for the four convicts -- Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta, and Mukesh Singh, for their hanging at 6 am on March 3 at Delhi`s Tihar Jail.

Meanwhile, a Delhi court on Saturday asked Tihar jail authorities to file a report on an application moved by convict Akshay Kumar Singh, seeking a stay on the execution of the death warrant. Additional sessions judge Dharmender Rana listed the matter for further hearing on Monday. 

Advocate AP Singh, the lawyer of the convict, had informed the court a "complete" mercy petition of the convict Akshay Kumar Singh has been moved before the President of India claiming that the earlier one, which was dismissed, did not have the "complete facts".

The petition said that a curative petition of convict Pawan Gupta and a special leave petition are pending before the Supreme Court while a criminal appeal case is also pending before the Delhi High Court.

It said that a petition is also pending before the election commission of India challenging the mercy petition of Vinay Sharma. 

The apex court has also slated for March 5 hearing on a petition filed by Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), seeking directions to separately execute the convicts. 

Notably, 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 Delhi.