After Supreme Court Dismisses Review Petition, Nirbhaya Convicts To File Curative Petition

After the Supreme Court rejected review petition of Akshay Kumar Singh, one of the convicts in the 2012 Delhi gangrape case, three of the four convicts have told Tihar authorities that they still have the option of a curative petition before filing the mercy plea.

According to the reply filed in response to a notice issued to them last week, the convicts have said that although the Supreme Court has rejected their review petition but they are still left with the option of filing a curative petition.

A curative petition is the last legal recourse available to a convict and it is generally considered in-chamber.

On December 18, authorities had issued a notice to convicts of the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case to file mercy petition within seven days.

Reuters

The authorities had informed the four convicts that they have seven days to file the mercy petition.

"If the convicts do not file mercy petition within the given time, then we will submit the report to the concerned court," a senior jail official said.

On December 18, the Patiala House court adjourned for January 7 the hearing on the issuance of death warrants against the convicts in the December 16, 2012 case.

AFP

The court gave a week¡¯s time to know whether the four convicts are filing mercy petitions, hours after the Supreme Court dismissed the last review plea against the capital punishment.

The paramedic student was raped on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012, inside a running bus in south Delhi by six persons and severely assaulted before being thrown out on the road.

She died on December 29, 2012, at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore, where she was airlifted from Delhi for treatment.