SC to hear Nirbhaya gang-rape, murder convict's review plea today

The Supreme Court will hear a review plea filed by one of the four convicts awaiting the death penalty in connection with the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case today.

According to an official circular, a three-judge bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde, Justices R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan will hear Akshay Kumar Singh's petition at 2 pm.

A three-judge bench of the top court had in May 2017, dismissed the appeals filed by all the four convicts against the death sentence awarded to them.

The four convicts -- Mukesh, Akshay, Pawan and Vinay -- had knocked the doors of the apex court against a Delhi High Court order which confirmed the capital punishment awarded to them by the trial court in September 2013.

In a voluminous judgement, the bench of the top court had held the attitude of offenders as "bestial proclivity" and said, "It sounds like a story from a different world where humanity is treated with irreverence."

The 23-year-old paramedical student was gang-raped in a moving bus by six persons on the night of December 16, 2012. Out of the six, one was a minor and appeared before a juvenile justice court, while another accused had committed suicide in Tihar jail.

Marking seven years of the incident, Chief Justice of India SA Bobde had on Monday constituted a panel of two Supreme Court judges to speed up sexual assault cases that remain stalled in courts across the country.

Major public outcry had broken out after an accused in the matter, Vinay moved a mercy petition last month.

Delhi government had on December 1 recommended the rejection of the mercy petition and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said that strict action should be taken in such cases to set an example.

Vinay later sought to withdraw his petition.