Nirbhaya Case: SC Verdict On Convict Vinay Sharma's Plea Today

New Delhi: The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce its verdict on a petition by Vinay Sharma, one of the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya case, challenging the rejection of his mercy plea by President Ramnath Kovind. A bench of the apex court comprising Justice Banumathi, Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice AS Bopanna heard the death row convict's petition on Thursday, in which he cited defects including an absence of procedural fairness while reviewing and rejecting his mercy plea.

The bench had stated that it would not go into the merits of the rejection by the President, but would only examine whether all the requisite documents had been furnished to him by the authorities concerned. Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta produced the complete record relating to Vinay Sharma's mercy plea to substantiate the government's view that there had been no procedural lapse.

The Supreme Court will also hear the Centre's plea for the separate hanging of three convicts on the death row, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Singh and Mukesh Singh, who have exhausted all the legal options available to them including mercy petition to the President of India.

The Centre has approached the Supreme Court challenging the judgement of the Delhi High Court which stated that all the four death row convicts in the horrific 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case have to be hanged together and not separately.

Meanwhile, one of the four death row convicts, Pawan Gupta, has not yet filed a curative petition which is the last legal remedy available to him, as also a mercy petition to the President of India. On Thursday, the Supreme court appointed a senior advocate, Anjana Prakash, to represent Gupta after he sought a change of lawyer.