Nirbhaya Case: Supreme Court Dismisses Convict Pawan Gupta's Plea Claiming Being 'Juvenile' At Time Of Crime

Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the plea of Pawan Gupta, one of the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape-and-murder case, seeking review of its verdict which dismissed his plea claiming to be a juvenile at the time of commission of the offence. On January 20, the apex court had rejected the plea by Pawan who had challenged the Delhi High Court's order dismissing his juvenility claim.

Meanwhile, a Delhi court on Friday reserved its order on an application of three death row convicts in the case seeking a stay on their execution on February 1. Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana reserved the order after completion of hearing of arguments of the Tihar jail authorities and the convicts' lawyer.

Earlier, while dismissing Pawan Gupta's plea on January 20, the top court had said there was no ground to interfere with the high court order that rejected Pawan's plea and his claim was rightly rejected by the trial court as also the high court. It had said the matter was raised earlier in the review petition before the apex court which rejected plea of juvenility taken by Pawan and another co-accused Vinay Kumar Sharma and that order has attained finality.

Pawan's lawyer AP Singh had argued that as per his school leaving certificate, he was a minor at the time of the offence and none of the courts, including trial court and high court, ever considered his documents.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Delhi Police, had said Pawan's claim of juvenility was considered at each and every judicial forum and it will be a travesty of justice if the convict is allowed to raise the claim of juvenility repeatedly and at this point of time.

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The trial court on January 17 issued black warrants for the second time for the execution of all the four convicts in the case -- Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan (25), Vinay (26) and Akshay (31) - in Tihar jail at 6 am on February 1. Earlier, on January 7, the court had fixed January 22 as the hanging date.

As of now, only Mukesh has exhausted all his legal remedies including the clemency plea which was dismissed by President Ram Nath Kovind on January 17 and the appeal against the rejection was thrown out by the Supreme Court on January 29. Convict Akshay's curative petition was dismissed by the top court on January 30. Another death row convict Vinay moved mercy plea before President on January 29, which is pending.

A 23-year-old paramedic student, referred to as Nirbhaya, was gang-raped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012, in a moving bus in south Delhi by six people before she was thrown out on the road. 

(With PTI Inputs)