Nirbhaya case: SC to hear Centre's appeal challenging HC verdict on hanging of convicts tomorrow
The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear tomorrow, plea filed by Centre, government of NCT Delhi against yesterday's decision of the Delhi High Court holding that the four death row convicts cannot be hanged separately. Additional Solicitor General K M Natraj, appearing for the Centre, mentioned the matter for urgent listing before a bench comprising justices N V Ramana, Sanjiv Khanna and Krishna Murari.
Natraj told the court that jail authorities are unable to execute the convicts in the case despite the fact that their review petitions have been dismissed and curative petitions and mercy pleas of three of them rejected.
Yesterday, President Ram Nath Kovind had rejected a mercy plea filed by Akshay, one of the convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case.
Akshay Thakur, one of the convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case, filed a mercy plea last week. Thakur and three other convicts were to be hanged on Saturday but a city court indefinitely postponed their hanging.
On the sideline, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday said all the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case have to be executed together, not separately, and dismissed the Centre's plea against the trial court's order staying the execution of their death sentence.
Hours after the high court's verdict, the Centre and the Delhi government filed an appeal against it in the apex court. The Centre and the Delhi government moved the Supreme Court challenging the rejection of their plea by the Delhi High Court against the trial court order staying the execution of four death-row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case.
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