Nirbhaya case: Centre, Delhi govt. move SC challenging HC verdict

New Delhi, Feb. 5 (PTI): The Centre and the Delhi government moved the Supreme Court Wednesday challenging the rejection of their plea by the Delhi High Court against the trial court order staying the execution of four death-row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case.

Hours after the high court’s verdict, the Centre and the Delhi government filed an appeal against it in the apex court.

The high court said all the four convicts in the Nirbhaya case have to be executed together, not separately and faulted the authorities concerned for not taking steps for issuance of death warrant after the rejection of appeals of the convicts by the Supreme Court in 2017.

The trial court had on January 31 stayed “till further orders” execution of the four convicts in the case — Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31), who are lodged in Tihar Jail.

A lawyer associated with the matter said the grounds taken for a challenge in the top court are almost the same as taken in the high court while filing the appeal against the trial court order.

He said that since the copy of the high court verdict is awaited, the Centre and the Delhi government preferred not to wait anymore and have stated in the petition in the apex court that the convicts can be hanged separately as Mukesh has exhausted all his remedies, including the mercy plea.