Delhi court on Tuesday issued a death warrant for the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case. The verdict comes during the hearing of a plea seeking the issuance of 'black warrant' against the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case.

The convicts will be hanged on January 22 at 7 am.

The Supreme Court had confirmed the death penalty awarded to one of the four convicts, Akshay in the gruesome case after it dismissed his plea which sought a review of its 2017 judgment.

The Supreme Court said the review petition was not "re-hearing of appeal over and over again" and it had already considered the mitigating and aggravating circumstances while upholding the death penalty.

With the December 18 verdict, the review petitions of all the four death row convicts stood dismissed. On July 9 last year, the top court had dismissed the review pleas filed by the other three convicts -- Mukesh (32), Pawan Gupta (25) and Vinay Sharma (26) -- in the case, saying no grounds have been made out by them for the review.

LEGAL RECOURSE FOR ACCUSED?

The death warrant does not mean that the legal options for the four accused in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case have been exhausted. The four convicts can still file pleas against the death warrant. They have the option of filing a curative plea in the SC as well as a mercy plea before the President.

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

Convict Akshay Kumar Singh had filed a review petition against the 2017 judgment of the Supreme Court, which the Supreme Court dismissed on Wednesday.

With this verdict on the plea of convict Akshay Kumar Singh, the review petitions of all the four death row convicts in the case stood dismissed by the Supreme Court.

The convicts' lawyer AP Singh has said that they will be filing a curative petition in the Supreme Court.

Source: India Today

Source: 1800 HRS, JAN 07, 2020
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