New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed Nirbhaya gang rape case convict Mukesh Singh's plea challenging the President's rejection of the mercy plea.
Mukesh Singh, who has a death warrant for February 1, had filed a plea in the apex court after the President rejected his mercy plea on January 17.
A three-judge bench headed by Justice R Banumathi said that expeditious disposal of mercy plea by the President doesn't mean non-application of mind by him.
The bench said all relevant material including judgements pronounced by trial court, high court and Supreme Court were placed before the President when he was considering the mercy plea of the convict.
The court also said that alleged sufferings in prison can't be grounds to challenge the rejection of mercy petition.
Ajay Thakur, another convict in the case has also filed a curative petition against the death warrant. Given the new development, it is unlikely that the hanging will take place on the fixed date.
The Centre on Tuesday sought dismissal of his plea and said that being ill-treated in prison cannot be a ground for mercy to one who has committed such a heinous crime.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told a three-judge bench headed by Justice R Banumathi that the convict, Mukesh Kumar Singh, was not kept in solitary confinement as alleged and no ground of commutation has been made out.
Singh had alleged procedural lapses in dismissal of his mercy plea by the President.
He said that certain supervening circumstances, including solitary confinement and procedural lapses have been ignored while considering his mercy plea.
The bench was hearing Singh's plea against the dismissal of his mercy petition by President Ram Nath Kovind on January 17.
He has sought an urgent hearing on his plea against the dismissal of the mercy plea.
The trial court has issued black warrants for the execution of all the four convicts -- Mukesh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Kumar Sharma and Akshay Kumar -- at 6 am on February 1.
The 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who came to be known as "Nirbhaya" (the fearless), was gang-raped and savagely assaulted on the night of December 16, 2012, in a moving bus in South Delhi. She died of her injuries a fortnight later in a Singapore hospital.
(With inputs from PTI.)
