SC finds no ground to consider petition filed by Nirbhaya convict over rejection of mercy plea

The Supreme Court, in its order, did not find any grounds for considering the petition filed by one of the death row convicts, Vinay Sharma, seeking a review of the rejection of his mercy petition's dismissal by the President of India.

"We do not find any ground for exercise of judicial review of the order of the President of India rejecting the petitioner's mercy petition and this writ petition is liable to be dismissed. The writ petition is dismissed accordingly," the three-judge bench of the Apex Court, headed by Justice R Banumathi said, in its order on Friday.

The Apex Court did not consider any ground and contention as raised by the petitioner, one of the death row convicts, Vinay Sharma, in the brutal December 16, 2012, gangrape-cum-murder case.

The apex court did not consider the contentions of Vinay Sharma that his mercy petition was rejected as relevant materials were not placed before the President of India and were kept out of consideration.

The Apex Court also refused to consider the medical status report and the mental health of the petitioner, as the ground for rejection of the mercy petition by the President of India.

Solitary confinement ground, as claimed by the petitioner for the commutation of his death sentence, was also rejected by the apex court.

The Supreme Court also did not consider that a biased order was passed on irrelevant considerations against Vinay Sharma and thereby the court held that the rejection of mercy petition by the President of India was done rightly.

The apex court also dismissed the claim by the petitioner, that the President of India, had rejected his mercy petition as there was non-application of mind by him.

Vinay Sharma, one of the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape case, had filed a writ petition before the Supreme Court challenging the rejection of his mercy petition by the President of India.

On February 1, President Ram Nath Kovind had rejected the mercy petition of Vinay Sharma in the case. The mercy petitions of convicts Akshay Thakur and Mukesh Singh have also been rejected.

The Delhi High Court on February 5 granted a week's time to the four convicts to avail of all legal remedies available to them and said that the convicts cannot be hanged separately since they were convicted for the same crime.

A Delhi Court had issued a death warrant against the four convicts -- Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta, and Mukesh Singh -- on January 7 and they were scheduled to be executed on January 22 at Tihar Jail. Later, the execution was suspended indefinitely by a Delhi court.

One of the five adults accused, Ram Singh, had allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar Jail during the trial of the case.