Know Why Nirbhaya Case Convicts Are Unlikely To Be Hanged On February 1

The four convicts of 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case – Mukesh, Akshay, Pawan and Vinay – are unlikely to be hanged on February 1 as three of them are yet to exhaust their all options to challenge their death sentence. While Mukesh has exhausted all his options, Vinay can still file mercy plea before the date of hanging, which is February 1.

If he files his mercy plea on January 31 and it gets rejected, he still can’t be hanged for 14 days. A convict facing death sentence gets 14 days to meet family and for judicial review after the rejection of mercy plea by the President.

The two other convicts Akshay and Pawan still have both mercy plea and curative plea options left. Akshay has filed his curative plea before the Supreme Court on Wednesday and the top court is scheduled to hear his petition tomorrow. In his petition, the death row convict said that capital punishment is being awarded in courts as panacea for public pressure and public opinion on violence against women.

The 31-year-old said that the Supreme Court "in its confidence of handing out the death penalty as 'proportional' punishment on the basis of how brutal the crime is, exposes the inconsistency of this court and all other criminal courts in this country that have handed out the death penalty as panacea for public pressure and public opinion on violence against women, despite no evidentiary link between its selective application and reduction in crime".

Also Read | Nirbhaya Case Convict Akshay Files Curative Plea In Supreme Court Challenging Death Penalty

A bench comprising Justices NV Ramana, Arun Mishra, RF Nariman, R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan will take up the curative petition on Thursday. However, even if the bench rejects his curative plea, the last legal recourse available to a person in a court of law, he will still be allowed to seek mercy from the President. RELATED

Another convict Pawan is yet to file a curative plea against the capital punishment. He also has mercy plea option left with him. Until all the convicts exhaust all their legal recourses, they can’t be hanged unless they decide against challenging the death sentence. So, the hanging is highly unlikely on February 1 and it may take more than a month due to the 14-day time period after the rejection of mercy plea.