Six people accused of the brutal gang rape and murder of a medical student are expected to appear in court in India's capital New Delhi today.

Lawyers say they will refuse to defend the accused at the hearings, which are expected to begin at the Saket district court in the south of the city.

The 23-year-old victim died in hospital at the weekend after a 13-day struggle to survive injuries so grievous that part of her intestines had to be removed.

Police will formally present the court with a 1,000-page charge sheet against the men.

They allege the five men and one juvenile lured the woman and her male friend on to a bus where the assault began.

Police allege the men drove the bus around for almost an hour, beating the woman with an iron bar and taking turns to rape her.

They say they then threw the woman out of the bus and tried to run her over.

Police say the woman's boyfriend, who was beaten and also thrown off the bus, managed to pull her to safety just in time.

"The woman and her friend were stripped and thrown out of the bus," the Indian Express reported.

"Her friend pulled her away when he saw the bus reversing to run her over."

Five men are expected to face charges including rape, murder and kidnapping, with the prosecutor likely to seek the death sentence.

The sixth suspect is believed to be 17 years old, meaning he would be tried in a juveniles court, but police are conducting bone tests to determine his age.

Sanjay Kumar, a lawyer and a member of the Saket District Bar Council, says 2,500 advocates registered at the court had decided to "stay away" to ensure "speedy justice", meaning the government would have to appoint lawyers for the defendants.

"We have decided that no lawyer will stand up to defend the rape accused as it would be immoral to defend the case," he said.

The brutality and horrific nature of the attack has led to protests in the capital and elsewhere over the widespread abuse of women and sexual crimes in India.

Official figures show there were 228,650 reported crimes against women in India last year, with the number of rapes in the capital rising 17 per cent to 661 this year.

The government, which has faced a wave of public anger over the attack, this week set up a special 13-member committee to look into safety issues and review the functioning of Delhi police on a regular basis.

A panel to recommend changes to the criminal law dealing with sexual crimes was set up last week.

ABC/AFP

Editor's note: (February 22) The article originally reported that "228,650 of the total 256,329 violent crimes recorded last year were against women". However, this was wrong, as not all of the 228,650 crimes against women in India were categorised as "violent" crimes.