Nirbhaya Case: Mukesh Kumar Moves Supreme Court For Review Of Rejection Of Mercy Petition By President

One of the death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya murder and gang rape case on Saturday moved the Supreme Court seeking judicial review of the rejection of mercy petition by the President. The petition has been filed by convict Mukesh Kumar whose mercy plea was dismissed by President Ram Nath Kovind on January 17.

"A petition has been filed under Article 32 for judicial review of the manner of rejection of the mercy petition in terms of the judgement of Supreme Court in Shatrughan Chauhan case," advocate Vrinda Grover, who is representing Kumar, told news agency PTI.

Centre seeks modification of the Shatrughan Chauhan judgment

The Centre moved the Supreme Court urging to seeking modification of the Shatrughan Chauhan judgment on rights available to death row convicts. The plea seeks imposition of time limit to file curative petition after review is rejected and says the convict should file his or her mercy petition within seven days after black warrant is issued. Welcoming the government move, Asha Devi, the mother of Nirbhaya, said: “I want the Supreme Court should issue fresh guidelines for hanging the convicts.”

The Centre moved the apex court following the delay in execution of the convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case, urging modification to the Shatrughan Chauhan judgment in 2014 regarding the right to legal relief for the sentenced convicts.

The Supreme Court recently dismissed the curative petitions of other two convicts—Vinay and Mukesh Singh (32). Mukesh’s mercy petition was rejected by the President earlier this month.

The hanging of all four is to take place on February 1 at 6 am, according to the court order.

The 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. She was flown to a hospital in Singapore where she died.