Nirbhaya Case: Convicts Have Option of Filing Curative Petition

Activists along with Nirbhaya’s mother staging a protest in New Delhi. Image used for representational purposes. 

(Photo Courtesy: PTI/Altered by The Quint)

Three out of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya case have told the Tihar Jail authorities that they still have the option of a curative petition before filing the mercy plea, officials said on 24 December.

According to the reply filed in response to a notice issued to them last week, the convicts have said that although the Supreme Court has rejected their review petition, they are still left with the option of filing a curative petition.

A curative petition is the last legal recourse available to a convict and it is generally considered in-chamber.

The authorities had issued a notice to the convicts of the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case on 18 December to file a mercy petition within seven days.

The authorities had informed the four convicts that they have seven days to file the mercy petition.

“If the convicts do not file mercy petition within the given time, then we will submit the report to the concerned court.”

A Senior Jail Official

On 18 December, the Patiala House court adjourned for 7 January the hearing on the issuance of death warrants against the convicts in the 16 December 2012 case.

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.

The paramedic student was raped on the intervening night of 16-17 December 2012, inside a running bus in south Delhi by six persons and severely assaulted before being thrown out on the road.

She died on 29 December 2012, at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore, where she was airlifted from Delhi for treatment.