Nirbhaya case convict moves SC with fresh curative petition

In a last ditched effort, one of the convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case, Pawan Gupta, has moved the Supreme Court with a curative petition against the dismissal of his review plea rejecting his juvenility claim.

The top court had on January 31 dismissed his review plea against the rejection of his appeal on January 20.

The review plea was taken up for consideration in-chamber by a bench comprising Justices R Banumathi, Ashok Bhushan and AS Bopanna and was dismissed.

Pawan's counsel A P Singh confirmed filing of the curative petition on Tuesday.

While dismissing his appeal on January 20, the top court had said there was no ground to interfere with the Delhi High Court order that rejected Pawan's similar plea.

The apex court had said that the convict's claim was rightly rejected by the trial court as also the high court.

It had said the matter was raised earlier in the review plea before the apex court which rejected the claim of juvenility taken by Pawan and another convict Vinay Kumar Sharma and that order has attained finality.

Pawan's counsel had earlier argued that as per his school-leaving certificate, he was a minor at the time of the offence.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Delhi Police, had said Pawan's claim of juvenility was considered at each and every judicial forum and it will be a travesty of justice if the convict is allowed to raise the claim of juvenility repeatedly and at this point of time.

The trial court had on March 5 issued fresh black warrants for the execution of all the four convicts in the caseMukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan (25), Vinay (26) and Akshay (31)in Tihar Jail at 5.30 am on March 20.

All the convicts have exhausted their legal remedies and constitutional remedies with the filing of their mercy petitions, which have been rejected by the President.