BREAKING NEWS: Supreme Court agrees to hear Centre's plea on executing Nirbhaya case convicts seperately

The Centre had moved the top court, seeking an urgent listing of its appeal against the Delhi High Court verdict rejecting its plea against stay on execution of Nirbhaya case convicts.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear on Friday Centre's appeal against Delhi High Court’s order rejecting its plea to separately execute the death row convicts in 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case.

The apex court order came a day after Delhi High Court rejected the Centre's plea and directed the convicts to avail all their legal remedies within the next seven days. The High Court ruled that all the four convicts in Nirbhaya case should be hanged together, not separately.

The Centre then moved the top court, seeking an urgent listing of its appeal against the Delhi High Court verdict rejecting its plea against stay on their execution. In its petition, the Centre told the top court that it is unable to hang the Nirbhaya case convicts due to stay on their execution.

Passing the order on Wednesday, Justice Suresh Kumar Kait of Delhi High Court observed that no doubt the Nirbhaya case was a heinous crime, the convicts will take every remedy available.

The four convicts on death row are Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Akshay Thakur. The order came on a petition filed by the Centre challenging a Delhi sessions court's order which stayed the death warrants issued against the four convicts. 

On February 4, 2020, Nirbhaya's parents' lawyer had sought an early disposal of the matter. The Centre had moved the Delhi High Court through Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to challenge the January 31 order of Patiala House Court Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana.

In a related incident, President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday rejected the mercy petition of Akshay Kumar Singh, one of the four convicts facing execution in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case. 

This was confirmed by the Home Ministry. Notably, President Kovind had already rejected the clemency petition of two other Nirbhaya case convicts - Mukesh Singh and Vinay Kumar Sharma.