Nirbhaya gangrape-murder convicts' execution postponed until further orders

New Delhi: In a major development, the Delhi court on Friday (January 31) postponed the execution of death warrants of all four convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape-murder case till further orders. The order was passed by Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana on the petition filed by the convicts seeking a stay on their execution on February 1. 

Earlier on Friday, the Supreme Court had dismissed Nirbhaya gang-rape case convict Pawan Gupta’s petition claiming that he was a juvenile when the offence took place. The review plea filed earlier in the day was taken up for consideration in-chamber by a bench comprising Justices R Banumathi, Ashok Bhushan and A S Bopanna. Pawan had earlier filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in Supreme Court claiming that he was a juvenile when he committed the crime in 2012 and this fact was not taken into account by Delhi High Court during the proceedings in the case. Prior to that, Pawan had filed the same plea in the Delhi High Court too but it was rejected by the court. On January 17 (Friday), Pawan approached the apex court challenging the Delhi High Court order in this case.

Pawan's lawyer AP Singh had claimed in the petition that his client's date of birth as per school record is October 8, 1996, but this fact was ignored by Delhi High Court. 

He was held to be a major by an order of Magistrate passed in 2013. The death row convict stated that the order was passed without hearing him. He alleged that the police had not produced the school records in the case. No opportunity was given to his counsel to examine the papers submitted by police on the plea of juvenility, he stated in the petition.

He submitted that the school certificate came to light only after 2017, when his lawyers were collecting materials for preparing an affidavit detailing his mitigating circumstances, following the directions of the Supreme Court on February 3, 2017. He argued that the school leaving certificate showed his date of birth as October 8, 1996.

This petition demanded the top court to reconsider its January 20 decision in which it had rejected Pawan's plea. Also, Pawan is yet to file a curative petition in the top court.

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According to Delhi Prison Rules, none of the four convicts in the same case can be hanged before the last one has exhausted all legal options including the mercy plea. The apex court guidelines also stipulate that convicts cannot be hanged until 14 days after their mercy plea has been rejected by the President.

Recently, Vinay Kumar Sharma has filed a mercy petition in the matter, while Mukesh Kumar too had filed a mercy petition, which was rejected by the President. He later challenged the rejection of his mercy petition in the Supreme Court but failed to get any respite. 

On the night of December 16, 2012, six people including a juvenile had gang-raped and brutalised a 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus in Delhi. The woman had died at a Singapore hospital a few days later.

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