Nirbhaya case: Supreme Court to hear curative petitions of 2 convicts today

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday (January 14) will hear the curative petitions of two of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya case. Two of Nirbhaya gangrape and murder convicts, Vinay Kumar Sharma and Mukesh, filed the curative petition in the apex court after a Delhi court issued a death warrant in their name and announced January 22 as the date of their execution. 

The five judges bench comprising Justice NV Ramana, Arun Mishra, Rohinton Nariman, R Bhanumati, and Ashok Bhushan will hear the petitions in-chamber at 1.45 pm. 

A curative petition is the last judicial resort available for redressal of grievances. If their curative plea is rejected, they would move a mercy petition before the President who has the power to commute their death sentence to life imprisonment.

The Delhi court after issuing a black warrant in their name gave them two weeks' time to file both the curative and mercy petitions.

Besides Vinay Kumar Sharma and Mukesh, two other convicts named Pawan and Akshay are also slated to be hanged on the same day in Delhi's Tihar Jail premises.

The four convicts were awarded capital punishment for raping a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus in the national capital on the night of December 16, 2012.

The victim, who was later named as Nirbhaya, died at a hospital in Singapore where she was airlifted for medical treatment.