New Delhi: Three convicts in the Nirbhaya rape case — Akshay Singh, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma — have moved the International Court of Justice seeking a stay on the execution of their death sentence.

On March 5, a trial court had issued fresh warrants with March 20, 5:30 am, as the date and time for the execution of the convicts — Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Singh (31).

Earlier on Monday, the Supreme Court had rejected the plea of Mukesh Singh seeking restoration of all his legal remedies alleging that his earlier lawyers misled him. The top court held Singh's plea as not maintainable saying that the review petition and the curative petition have both been dismissed in the case.

The execution of the convicts’ death warrants has been deferred thrice so far due to delays by them in exhausting legal remedies.

After the fresh death warrant was issued, the Tihar Jail authorities wrote to their counterparts in Uttar Pradesh, requesting for the service of hangman Pawan Jallad. According to the jail authorities, dummy executions would be conducted after the arrival of Jallad.

Out of the four convicts, Mukesh, Pawan and Vinay have had their last face-to-face meetings with their respective families. The authorities have written to the family of Akshay about the date for final meeting before the scheduled date of execution.

The jail authorities have also not stopped the convicts' weekly meetings with their families yet.

A 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who came to be known as 'Nirbhaya' (fearless), was gang-raped and savagely assaulted in a moving bus in south Delhi on December 16, 2012. She died a fortnight later.

Six people, including the four convicts and a juvenile, were named as the accused. Ram Singh, the sixth accused, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail days after the trial began in the case.

The juvenile was released in 2015 after spending three years in a correctional home.