The convicts in the Nirbhaya case will get one week to exercise
all their legal remedies, after which the trial court will begin proceedings
for their execution, the Delhi High Court said today, settling the Centre's
petition against the indefinite freeze on execution placed by the lower court.
The judges, however, refused to hang the convicts separately, which was also
part of the Centre's request.
"Delhi Prison Rules do not say that if mercy petition of one convict
is pending, the execution of the other convicts can take place," said
Justice Suresh Kait, who was hearing the case.
"Since upto the Supreme
Court, their fate has been decided by a common judgment, I am of the opinion
that death warrant of all convicts should be executed together and not
separately," the court added.
"I'm glad that the High
Court has set a time limit for the process. The convicts have been delaying it,
now it has to done within a week," Nirbhaya's mother told reporters.
Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta,
Mukesh Singh and Akshay Singh - convicted for the shocking gang-rape and murder
of a 23-year-old paramedical student dubbed Nirbhaya by the media in
Delhi in 2012 - were to be executed on February 1.
But the trial court postponed
the execution indefinitely after a second convict, Vinay Sharma, filed a mercy
petition before President Ram Nath Kovind. As his appeal was turned down,
another convict, Akshay Singh, filed his mercy plea.Source
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