SC to hear on Monday curative petition of Nirbhaya case convict Pawan Gupta

A five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court is likely to hear on Monday the curative petition filed by Pawan Gupta, one of the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case.

The five-judge Constitution bench headed by Justice NV Ramana will also consist of Justice Arun Mishra, Justice RF Nariman, Justice R Banumathi and Justice Ashok Bhushan.

Gupta had on Friday filed a curative petition before the apex court seeking commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment. He is the fourth convict in the case to file a curative petition. The Supreme Court has already rejected the curative petitions of the rest three.

This comes as a fresh death warrant has been issued for the four convicts -- Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh Singh, which orders their hanging at 6 am on March 3 at Delhi's Tihar Jail.

Meanwhile, the apex court has also slated for March 5 hearing on a petition filed by Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), seeking directions to separately execute the convicts.

The case pertains to the brutal gang rape and killing 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.