Nirbhaya case convicts seek withdrawal of 7-day deadline to file mercy plea

The jail authorities had informed the convicts that they had exhausted all legal remedies and were only left with the provision of filing a mercy petition against the death sentence

Three condemned convicts, facing the gallows in the 2012 gangrape and murder case of a 23-year-old paramedic student, have written to the jail authorities, seeking withdrawal of an October 29 notification granting them seven days' time to file mercy pleas with the president against their execution, their lawyer said on Monday.

A P Singh, the lawyer representing Vinay Sharma, Akshay Kumar Singh and Pawan Kumar Gupta in courts, said the three convicts had written to their jail authorities, seeking withdrawal of the notification on several grounds.

In Singh's case, a review plea was yet to be filed in the apex court and a petition with regard to Gupta's juvenility claim was pending in the Delhi High Court, he said, adding that the option of filing curative pleas was still to be availed.

The jail authorities had informed the Nirbhaya gangrape case convicts that they had exhausted all legal remedies and were only left with the provision of filing a mercy petition against the death sentence before the president.

"It is hereby informed that in case if you have not yet filed the mercy petition and if you wish to file the mercy petition in your case against the capital sentence before the Hon'ble President of India, you can file it within seven days of the receipt of this notice through prison authorities, failing which it will be presumed that you are not willing to file mercy petition in your case and the jail administration will initiate further necessary legal proceedings as per law," the notification issued on October 29 read.

The top court had, on July 9, 2018, dismissed the pleas filed by three of the four convicts, seeking a review of its verdict upholding the death penalty awarded to them.

It had rejected the review pleas filed by Mukesh (30), Gupta (23) and Sharma (23), saying no grounds were made out by them for a review of the verdict.

The fourth death row convict, Singh (32), did not file a review petition against the apex court's May 5, 2017 judgment.

The Supreme Court, in its 2017 verdict, upheld the capital punishment awarded to them by the Delhi High Court and the trial court in the gangrape and murder case of the woman.

The woman was raped and severely assaulted by six persons in a running bus in south Delhi, before being thrown out on the road, on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012.

She succumbed to her injuries on December 29, 2012 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.

One of the accused in the case, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail here.

A juvenile, who was among the accused, was convicted by a juvenile justice board. He was released from a reformation home after serving a three-year term.