The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed the petition of 2012 Delhi gangrape convict Mukesh Singh who challenged the decision of the President of India to reject his mercy plea. Pronouncing the verdict, ustices R Banumathi said there was no merit in the contention that all material pertaining to the mercy plea was not placed before the President of India. On Tuesday, Singh's lawyer Anjana Prakash told the apex court that the convict was sexually abused in Tihar Jail.
The judgment was rendered by the Bench of Justices R Banumathi, Ashok Bhushan, and AS Bopanna.
On the contention of ill treatment of the convict in the prison, the Court said that this ground cannot be taken to challenge the rejection of the mercy plea before the Court.
The Court also rejected the contention that the mercy plea was processed at "lightning speed", as a ground for challenge to the President's decision.
Appearing for Mukesh, Senior Advocate Anjana Prakash argued that there were procedural lapses on the part of the State leading to the rejection of the mercy plea by the President. It was contended that all the documents that are required to be supplied to the President of India for the decision on the mercy plea were not done so.
Mukesh had approached the Supreme Court after the rejection of his mercy plea by President of India Ram Nath Kovind on January 17.
The trial court had issued black warrants for the execution of all the four convicts — Mukesh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Kumar Sharma and Akshay Kumar — at 6 am on February 1.
The 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who came to be known as "Nirbhaya" (the fearless), was gang-raped and savagely assaulted on the night of December 16, 2012, in a moving bus in South Delhi. She died of her injuries a fortnight later in a Singapore hospital.
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