President, SC judges are not gods, can make mistakes: Nirbhaya convicts' lawyer

Asserting that anyone can make mistakes, advocate AP Singh, who is the lawyer of the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder convicts, on Thursday said that Supreme Court judges and President of India are not gods.

The statement came after a five-judge bench of the apex court dismissed the curative petition of Nirbhaya convict Akshay Thakur in the matter and rejected an application seeking a stay on the convicts' execution, which is scheduled for February 1.

"Be it five senior judges of the Supreme Court or the President of India, they are not gods. It is not like they cannot make a mistake," Singh told reporters here.

He said that the apex court did not agree with the grounds for the curative petition.

Informing that he has also filed a petition in the Patiala House Court seeking a stay on the execution of the convicts, Singh said that he "will also file a review petition pertaining to the juvenility of Pawan Kumar Gupta," who is also a convict in the matter.

Nirbhaya's lawyer Seema Kushwaha said that the only legal remedy the convicts' are left with is the mercy petition.

"We have come very close to the date of the execution. Now, they will not get any relief from anyone. The only legal remedy they have now is the mercy petition, which I don't think they should be allowed. I hope that the convicts are hanged on February 1," Kushwaha told ANI.

"They have contended that the mercy petition is pending and therefore the convicts can not be executed. However, they have merely filed the mercy petition and it is not pending before the President," she added.

Yesterday, the apex court had also dismissed the plea of another Nirbhaya convict -- Mukesh Kumar Singh -- challenging the rejection of his mercy petition by the President.

Earlier this month, a Delhi court had issued the death warrant for convicts -- Akshay, Mukesh, Pawan Gupta, and Vinay Kumar Sharma -- and ordered their hanging on February 1.

The case pertains to the gang-rape 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 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.