Justice R Banumathi faints during Nirbhaya case hearing in SC

Supreme Court Judge Justice R Banumathi fainted during the hearing in the 2012 Delhi gang-rape case in the apex court today. She was hearing the submissions made by the Centre on separate execution of convicts in the case.

She was taken into the chamber immediately after she fainted. The bench has adjourned the case and said that the order will be released later.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said "Justice R Banumathi was having high fever and she still has high fever. She is being examined by the doctors in the chamber. She was on medication when she was hearing the case."

The top court on Friday dismissed the petition of Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder convict Vinay Kumar Sharma challenging the rejection of mercy petition by President Ram Nath Kovind.

Supreme Court also said in its order that the medical reports stated that Vinay is psychologically fit and his medical condition is stable. The apex court dismissed his petition, finding it devoid of merit.

Vinay Sharma, one of the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape case, had filed a writ petition before the Supreme Court challenging the rejection of his mercy petition by the President of India.

On February 1, President Ram Nath Kovind had rejected the mercy petition of Vinay Sharma in the case. The mercy petitions of convicts Akshay Thakur and Mukesh Singh have also been rejected.

The Delhi High Court on February 5 granted a week's time to the four convicts to avail of all legal remedies available to them and said that the convicts cannot be hanged separately since they were convicted for the same crime.

A Delhi Court had issued a death warrant against the four convicts -- Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta, and Mukesh Singh -- on January 7 and they were scheduled to be executed on January 22 at Tihar Jail. Later, the execution was suspended indefinitely by a Delhi court.

The case pertains to the gang-rape and brutalizing of a 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus on the night of December 16, 2012, by six people including a juvenile in Delhi. The woman had died at a Singapore hospital a few days later.One of the five adults accused, Ram Singh, had allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar Jail during the trial of the case.