Nirbhaya case convicts misusing law, says Ravi Shankar Prasad

Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday said that convicts in the Nirbhaya rape and murder case were misusing the law to delay their hanging and that the judgement should be implemented at the earliest.

Speaking in Lok Sabha, the minister said that the Supreme Court had upheld the death sentences in the case and mercy petitions of convicts had been rejected by President Ram Nath Kovind.

"The way the convicts are misusing the law to stop that (sentence), it is unfortunate. This is not right," he said.

He said the government had gone to the Delhi High Court against the lower court order.

"We are very firm. Nirbhaya, who was the daughter of this country, should get justice. The death sentence should be carried out at the earliest," he said.

The Centre had moved the Delhi High Court challenging the Patiala House court order, which stayed the execution of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case. A single-judge Bench of Justice Suresh Kumar Kait had on Sunday reserved the order in the matter after hearing arguments from all the parties.

The execution of the four convicts -- Akshay Thakur, Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, and Vinay Sharma -- was earlier scheduled to take place on February, 1.

The case pertains to the gang-rape and brutal murder 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. One of the five adults accused, Ram Singh, had allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar Jail during the trial of the case.