New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the plea of a death row convict in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case challenging the Delhi High Court order which had dismissed his claim of being a juvenile at the time of commission of offence.
The verdict was announced by a bench headed by Justice R Banumathi.
Advocate A P Singh, appearing for the death row convict Pawan Kumar Gupta, earlier argued that as per his school leaving certificate he was a minor at the time of the offence and none of the courts, including trial court and high court, ever considered his documents.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Delhi police, however said that his claim of juvenility was considered at each and every judicial forum and it will be a travesty of justice if the convict is allowed to raise the clam of juvenility repeatedly and at this point of time.
He said the convict was 19 years old at the time of offence and there is a certified copy of his birth certificate as well as school leaving certificate which was taken on record by each and every judicial forum.
Gupta had moved the apex court on Friday.
He had 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 gangraped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 in a moving bus in south Delhi by six persons before she was thrown out on the road.
She succumbed to her injuries a fortnight later at a hospital in Singapore.
