Judge who issued death warrant against Nirbhaya rape case convicts transferred to SC as Additional Registrar

The sessions judge, who recently issued a death warrant against the four death row convicts in the 2012 Delhi gang-rape case, has been transferred to the Supreme Court as Additional Registrar on deputation basis.

According to officials, Additional Session Judge Satish Kumar Arora has been transferred for a period of one year.

"I am directed to say that Chief Justice has been pleased to appoint Satish Kumar Arora, an officer of Delhi Higher Judicial Service, as Additional Registrar, Supreme Court of India on deputation basis, initially for a period of one year," an official order issued on Thursday read.

The judge was hearing a petition of Nirbhaya's parents seeking directions to expedite the execution of the four convicts.

Judge Arora had, on January 17, issued a fresh death warrant against the four death-row convicts in a Nirbhaya rape case who are scheduled to be executed at 6 am on February 1.

The execution of convicts had been delayed after a Delhi court had, on January 7, also issued a death warrant for the four convicts in the matter for 7 am on January 22.

The four were convicted and sentenced to death for brutally gang-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.