Delhi HC to hear Nirbhaya case convict's plea seeking stay on death warrant today

Delhi High Court on Wednesday will hear the plea of Mukesh Singh, one of the four death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case, who is seeking a stay on the death warrant issued against him by a trial court.

He approached the High Court on Tuesday seeking to set aside the trial court's order issuing death warrant.

The division bench of Justice Manmohan and Justice Sangeeta Dhingra Sehgal will hear the plea.

Through his petition, the convict has informed the court that his mercy petition is pending before the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi and the President of India and he should be given a minimum 14 days notice between the rejection of his mercy petition and scheduled date of execution.

Supreme Court dismissed curative petitions of the two death row convicts, including Mukesh Singh, in the 2012 gang-rape case.

A five-judge Bench of Justices NV Ramana, Arun Mishra, RF Nariman, R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan heard the petitions filed by Vinay Sharma and Mukesh Singh. The duo had moved the curative petitions in the top court after a Delhi court issued death warrants in their names for their hanging on January 22.

Besides them, two other convicts named Pawan and Akshay are also slated to be executed on the same day at 7 am in Delhi's Tihar Jail premises.

They were convicted and sentenced to death for raping a 23-year-old woman in a moving bus in the national capital on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012.

The victim, who was later given the name Nirbhaya, had succumbed to injuries at a hospital in Singapore where she had been airlifted for medical treatment.