Nirbhaya gang-rape case convicts may file curative petition in SC today

NEW DELHI: The convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape case may file a curative petition in the Supreme Court on Monday against the death sentence awarded to them. It may be noted that after the apex court rejected the review petition of Akshay Kumar Singh, one of the convicts in the 2012 Delhi gangrape case, three of the four convicts had told the Tihar Jail authorities that they still have the option of filing a curative petition before filing a mercy plea.

A curative petition is the last legal recourse available to a convict and it is generally considered in-chamber. 

On December 18, the Tihar Jail authorities had issued a notice to convicts of the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case to file mercy petition within seven days. The authorities had informed the four convicts that they have seven days to file the mercy petition. "If the convicts do not file mercy petition within the given time, then we will submit the report to the concerned court," a senior jail official said.

On December 18, the Patiala House court adjourned for January 7 the hearing on the issuance of death warrants against the convicts in the December 16, 2012 case. The court gave a week’s time to know whether the four convicts are filing mercy petitions, hours after the Supreme Court dismissed the last review plea against capital punishment.

Nirbhaya's mother had in December last year moved the Supreme Court to oppose a review plea by one of the four men sentenced to death in the case. The paramedic student was raped on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012, inside a running bus in south Delhi by six persons and severely assaulted before being thrown out on the road.

She died on December 29, 2012, at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore, where she was airlifted from Delhi for treatment.