HC refuses to stay death warrant against Nirbhaya gangrape case convict Mukesh Singh

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday (January 15) refused to set aside the death warrant issued for the hanging of four Nirbhaya gangrape-murder convicts and said that convict Mukesh Singh could approach the trial court, which issued the death warrant. The HC, however, also said that it found nothing wrong in the death warrants issued by Delhi's Patiala House court for the hanging of four convicts on January 22 at 7 am.

Mukesh's advocate Rebecca John withdrew Mukesh's plea and said that they will now approach the trial court with information on recent developments in this case. The plea was heard by a division bench of Justice Manmohan and Justice Sangeeta Dhingra Sehgal.

In his plea, Mukesh had informed the High Court that his mercy petition is pending before Lieutenant Governor of Delhi and President of India, therefore, he should be given a minimum 14 days notice between the rejection of his mercy petition and scheduled date of execution.

In a related development, Delhi government said the court on Wednesday that four convicts can “surely not be hanged” on January 22 as a mercy petition filed by Singh is pending.

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Both the Additional Solicitor General and Delhi government lawyers said in court that all four convicts in this case will get 14 days from the day President Ram Nath Kovind takes a decision on their mercy petitions.

It is to be noted that Mukesh had approached the HC after the Supreme Court dismissed curative petitions of the two death row convicts, including Mukesh Singh, in the Nirbhaya case on Tuesday.

A five-judge Bench of Justices NV Ramana, Arun Mishra, RF Nariman, R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan heard the petitions filed by the convicts, Vinay Sharma and Mukesh Singh.