Nirbhaya case: SC commences hearing on convict's plea against HC order rejecting juvenile claim

The Supreme Court on Monday commenced hearing on the plea of a death-row convict in the Nirbhaya case against a Delhi High Court order dismissing his claim that he was a juvenile when the crime was committed.

A bench headed by Justice R Banumathi is hearing the plea of convict Pawan Kumar Gupta.

Gupta's counsel told the bench that the convict was minor at the time of commission of offence in December 2012 and the high court had wrongly dismissed plea.

The bench said the claim of being a juvenile was not taken initially during trial in the Nirbhaya case. However, Gupta's lawyer contended that it was taken as a 'mitigating circumstance' at the time of sentencing in the case.

Gupta had moved the apex court on Friday. He has also sought a direction restraining the authorities from executing the death penalty, scheduled for February 1.

A Delhi court on Friday issued fresh death warrants for February 1 against the four convicts -- Vinay Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Akshay Kumar Singh and Pawan -- in the case.

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.