SC rejects death row convict’s review plea in Nirbhaya Case

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a review plea filed by one of the death row convicts in the Nirbhaya rape and murder case, Akshay Kumar Singh, but allowed him to exercise another option — filing a mercy plea with the President of India.

The top court had earlier rejected the pleas of three other convicts in the case — Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh Mingh. They all could file mercy pleas as a last resort. While the President formally grants pardon, this power is exercised on the recommendation of the Union Cabinet.

Singh was the cleaner of the bus in which the physiotherapy student was gang raped and brutally assaulted in December 2012. She died a few days later.


A three-judge bench led by Justice R Banumathi rejected Singh’s plea after a fairly lengthy hearing, saying that all the pleas raised by Singh’s counsel had been argued earlier and rejected by the top court, and re-confirmed its May 5, 2017 judgement confirming the death sentences awarded to the four men. The victim’s mother was present in the court during the hearing. The top court though permitted him to file his mercy plea with the President, after solicitor general Tushar Mehta said the accused could do so within a week.