Can still file curative petition, say convicts in Nirbhaya gangrape case

NEW DELHI: Three out of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape case have told the Tihar Jail authorities that they wish to apply for curative petition as they still have the option to avail legal remedies before applying for mercy before the President, officials said.

On December 18, Tihar Jail administration issued a notice to the convicts of the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case to file mercy petition within seven days.

A senior official at Tihar had said that if the convicts did not file mercy petition within the given time, then they would submit the report to court.

In a reply to the notice, the three convicts — Pawan Gupta, Akshay Thakur and Pawan Sharma — have said that even though their review petition was rejected by the Supreme Court, they were still left with the option of filing a curative petition.

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A curative petition is the last judicial resort available for redressal of grievances in court which is normally decided by judges in chamber.

It is only in rare cases that such petitions are given an open-court hearing. The apex court had last week dismissed the review petition filed by one of the four convicts, Akshay Kumar Singh, after finding no merits in it.

The apex court observed that the grounds raised by Akshay are “identical” to the ones raised in the review petitions filed by other convicts last year, which were also dismissed.

Hours after the apex court’s decision, the Patiala House court adjourned for January 7 the hearing on the issuance of death warrants against the four convicts.

The court gave a week’s time to know whether the four convicts were filing mercy petitions. In 2012 on December 16, a 23-year-old female physiotherapy intern was gangraped, in a private bus.

Among the six offenders, Ram Singh, committed suicide in 2013 in Tihar Jail while the sixth accused was a juvenile. Days after the assault, the victim was transferred to Singapore for treatment but succumbed to her injuries two days later.

‘Will submit a report if pleas not filed’ A senior jail official said that if the convicts do not file mercy petition within the given time, they will submit the report to the court.

The city court gave a week’s time to know whether the four convicts are filing mercy petitions, hours after the Supreme Court dismissed the last review plea against capital punishment.