The convicts are lodged in Tihar jail

The Delhi High Court Saturday issued notices to all the four convicts in the December 16 gangrape case after hearing the Centre’s plea seeking to set aside the lower court’s stay order on their execution. The matter has been fixed for hearing tomorrow at 3 pm.

This comes a day after a Delhi court deferred the execution of the four convicts till further orders. Postponing the date of execution, the court on Friday said the country cannot afford to discriminate against a death row convict in pursuit of legal remedies. Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana passed the order on the plea by the convicts, seeking adjournment of the executions with no appointed date for resumption.

The convicts — Mukesh Singh (32), Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) — were scheduled to be hanged on Saturday. Earlier in the day, President Ram Nath Kovind rejected the mercy plea of Vinay Kumar Sharma. The Supreme Court had also dismissed a plea filed by another convict Pawan Gupta seeking a review of its order dismissing his juvenility claim.

As of now, Mukesh has exhausted all his legal remedies including the clemency plea which was dismissed by President Ram Nath Kovind on January 17 and the appeal against the rejection was thrown out by the Supreme Court on January 29. The curative petitions of Vinay Kumar Sharma and Akshay have been rejected by the apex court.

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