The Supreme Court will hear the curative petitions filed by two rape-murder convicts namely, Mukesh (aged 32) and Vinay Sharma (aged 26) in the infamous 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape case today (January 14, 2020). Other convicts in the rape-murder case namely Pawan Gupta (aged 25) and Akshay Kumar Singh (aged 31) haven’t filed for curative petitions.
The petition is filed before a five-judge bench of Justices NV Ramana, Arun Mishra, RF Nariman, R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan who will hear the plea today.
The four convicts gang-raped and murdered a 23 year old woman in a moving bus in the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi. The paramedic student was raped on the intervening night of December 16, 2012, inside a running bus in south Delhi by six persons and severely assaulted before being thrown out on the road. She died on December 29, 2012, at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore, where she was airlifted from Delhi for treatment.
After being convicted and sentenced to death for gang-raping and murdering a woman in 2012, this curative petition would be the last resort for them. If this curative petition gets dismissed by the Supreme Court, both of them, along with their co-convicts named Pawan Gupta and Akshay Kumar Singh are ordered by Additional Sessions Judge, Patiala House Court in Delhi, to be executed on January 22, 2020.
Specific requirements for the Court to entertain a curative petition:
A curative petition is not meant for automatic grant of one’s right to a second review. There must be the following conditions:
- The Court should have re-stated that the parties are prevented from challenging the final decision.
- The petitioner must prove that principles of natural justice have been violated or the judges who heard the case were biased. The Petition must be carried along with a certificate from a senior advocate.
Both Mukesh and Vinay can opt for mercy petition before the President.
Earlier, President Ram Nath Kovind refused to take on mercy petitions of people who are convicted for crimes such as rape.
The Supreme Court has issued a black warrant against these four convicts.
Author - Ayush Raina
