It also declines to set aside trial court order that deferred convicts’ hanging till further orders

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday declined the Union government’s plea to separately execute the death row convicts in the December 16, 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case. It also declined to set aside the trial court order, which had deferred the hanging of the convicts till further orders. It said the convicts cannot be hanged separately since they were convicted for the same crime.

Justice Suresh Kait, however, gave convicts Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Kumar Gupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31) seven days to exhaust all their available legal remedies. After this, the authorities would act as per rules, the judge said.

The Centre and the Delhi government had challenged the trial court’s January 31 order staying “till further orders” the execution of all the convicts.

On December 16, 2012, Nirbhaya, a paramedical student, was gang raped and brutally assaulted by six men in a private bus and thrown out of the moving vehicle along with her male friend. The victims later died of their injuries.

The four convicts have since been sentenced to death by a local court. The order has been upheld by the High Court and the Supreme Court.

Except Pawan, all convicts have exhausted their legal remedy available to file a curative petition before the Supreme Court. The President has also rejected the mercy pleas of Mukesh and Vinay.

A juvenile convict in the case has been released from a reformation home after serving a three-year term. One of the accused in the case, Ram Singh, died in the Tihar jail.