The Supreme Court will hear on January 20 a plea filed by Pawan Gupta, one of the death-row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case. Gupta moved the court on Friday, claiming that he was a juvenile at the time of crime, and the Delhi High Court rejected this fact while giving its verdict.
A three-judge bench of Justices R Banumathi, Ashok Bushan and A S Bopanna will hear the case.
Gupta has also sought a direction restraining the authorities from executing the death penalty which is now scheduled for 6 am on February 1. A Delhi Court issued a fresh death warrant after President Ram Nath Kovind rejected the mercy petition on Friday.
The Delhi Bar council had imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on his counsel AP Singh for wasting the court’s time and using the delaying tactics. Following the court’s order, the Delhi Bar Council has issued a notice to advocate AP Singh and sought his reply in two weeks in view of the court’s order, who allegedly did not appear before the court despite communication.
On December 16, 2012, a paramedical student was gang-raped in a moving bus by six men in Delhi. The student died at a Singapore hospital where she was airlifted for treatment. One of them, the key accused, Ram Singh, had allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail during the pendency of the case, while the sixth was a minor at the time of commission of the crime and was let out after serving a three-year remand in a juvenile justice home.