Supreme Court rejects curative petition of Nirbhaya case convict Pawan Kumar Gupta

Pawan Gupta is the fourth convict in the case to file a curative petition in the apex court.

New Delhi: In the Nirbhaya rape and murder case, Supreme Court on Monday (March 2) dismissed the curative petition of death row convict Pawan Kumar Gupta, who sought the commutation of his death penalty to life imprisonment. The top court dismissed Pawan's plea a day before the scheduled execution of the four convicts in the case.

Pawan Gupta is the fourth convict in the case to file a curative petition. Notably, another convict Akshay Singh has also filed a fresh mercy petition before the President, which is pending. 

The five-judge Constitution bench headed by Justice NV Ramana along with Justice Arun Mishra, Justice RF Nariman, Justice R Banumathi and Justice Ashok Bhushan heard the plea today.

The apex 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.

On Saturday, a Delhi court had 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. 

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".

Meanwhile, the SC 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. 

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.