SC asks Nirbhaya convict to approach registry for urgent listing of plea

The Supreme Court on Monday asked counsel of Nirbhaya case convict Mukesh Singh to approach its Registry for urgent listing of his plea against rejection of mercy petition by the President.

President Kovind had on January 17 rejected the convict's petition, which is the last constitutional recourse that a death row convict can exhaust.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde said, "If somebody is going to be executed then nothing can be more urgent than this and it should be the top priority".

The Bench comprising Justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant asked Kumar's counsel to approach the Supreme Court Registry as the hanging is scheduled on February 1.

Mukesh's lawyer Vrinda Grover is seeking the commutation of Mukesh's death sentence to life imprisonment from the apex court, as the President of India has rejected his mercy petition.

The Supreme Court's five-judge bench, headed by Justice NV Ramana, had on January 15, dismissed the curative petitions of Mukesh and another death row convict, Vinay Kumar Sharma. A 23-year-old paramedical student was brutally gang-raped by six men (including a juvenile) in a moving bus in the national capital on a chilly night on December 16, 2012, and was later given the name 'Nirbhaya' which means fearless. One of the accused, out of five adults, Ram Singh, had committed suicide in the Tihar Jail during the trial of the case.The other three death row convicts, against whom the death warrants have already been issued are Pawan Kumar Gupta, Vinay Kumar Sharma, and Akshay Kumar Singh.