Nirbhaya Case: SC To Hear Curative Petitions of 2 Convicts

The Supreme Court will hear curative petitions filedby two men on Tuesday afternoon convicted in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murdercase. A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the curativepetitions at 1:45 pm.

The petitions have been filed by Vinay Sharma (26) andMukesh Kumar (32), two of the four men currently on death row in the Nirbhayagang-rape and murder case.

A curative petition is the last and final judicialremedy available to a person convicted by courts of law. If the Supreme Courtrejects the curative petitions filed by Vinay Sharma and Mukesh Kumar, the twowill have the option of seeking mercy before the President.

Vinay Sharma's and Mukesh Kumar's review petitionswill be heard by a five-judge bench of Justices N V Ramana, Arun Mishra, R F Nariman,R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan. Like all curative petitions, the pleas will beheard in-chambers.

However, the five-judge bench that will hear Vinay'sand Mukesh's curative petitions includes two judges – Justices Banumathi andBhushan – who were part of the Supreme Court bench that in 2017 originallyupheld the convictions in the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case, and confirmedthe death penalties handed to the four men.

Justices Banumathi and Bhushan were also part of thebench that in 2018 rejected review petitions filed by three of the fourconvicts, including Vinay and Mukesh.

The Supreme Court hearing on Tuesday comes days aftera Delhi court issued 'death warrants' for the four convicts in the Nirbhayagang-rape and murder case and set January 22 as the date of their hangings.

Two of the four convicts— Akshay Kumar Singh (31) and Pawan Gupta (25) — have not yet filed curativepetitions. All four have previously filed review petitions, which have beenrejected by the Supreme Court.