SC dismisses Nirbhaya convict’s plea challenging rejection of mercy petition

The Supreme Court on Friday (February 14) dismissed the plea of one of the death-row convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape case, Vinay Kumar Sharma, which challenged the rejection of his mercy petition by the president.

In his plea, Sharma had alleged his mercy petition was rejected in a “mala fide” manner. The bench, comprising Justices R Banumathi, Ashok Bhushan and A S Bopanna, said no ground of judicial review of rejection of mercy petition is made out by Sharma.

All material including Sharma’s medical report were placed before the president who applied his mind in rejection of mercy plea, the apex court said. The top court rejected the contention of Sharma that he is mentally ill and said his medical report suggests he is stable.

The trial court had on January 31 stayed “till further orders” execution of the four convicts in the case — Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31), who are lodged in Tihar jail.

(With inputs from agencies)

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