Centre's petition in SC on legal question doesn't affect convicts' hanging: Nirbhaya's lawyer

Advocate Seema Kushwaha, representing the victim's side in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case, on Tuesday said that the Central government's petition being adjourned till March 5 has no impact on the execution of the convicts in the matter.

Earlier today, the Supreme Court adjourned till March 5 hearing in the petition filed by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs seeking to execute the convicts in the Nirbhaya case separately.

"The petition filed by Union Ministry of Home Affairs has been adjourned till March 5. The petition has no impact on the hanging as it is concerned with the question of law," Kushwaha told ANI here.

She said that the delay tactics employed by the convicts in the matter have raised a legal question.

"The convicts were taking advantage of the loopholes in the law. They were moving all their legal remedies separately. Their delay tactics have raised a legal question," Kushwaha added.

On the other hand, advocate AP Singh who is representing the death row convicts in the matter has claimed that the hanging of the convicts cannot be carried out when a petition in the matter is pending.

"The execution of the convicts cannot take place on March 3 since the petition is scheduled to be heard on March 5. A person cannot be executed when a plea in their case is pending before any court," Singh told reporters here.

The Centre had moved the top court after the Delhi High Court had rejected its petition and observed that the death warrant of all convicts in the case should be executed together.

The case pertains to the brutal gangrape and killing of a 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus on the night of December 16, 2012, by six people including a juvenile in Delhi. The woman had died at a Singapore hospital a few days later.