Verdict on Nirbhaya convict’s plea today

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 28

The Supreme Court will on Wednesday deliver its verdict on a petition filed by Mukesh Kumar Singh — one of the four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case — challenging President Ram Nath Kovind’s decision to reject his mercy plea.

A three-judge Bench headed by Justice R Banumathi – which reserved the verdict after hearing senior counsel Anjana Prakash, representing Mukesh, and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta – on Tuesday questioned his allegation that there was “non-application of mind” by the President in rejecting his mercy petition.

“How can you say that these facts were not placed before his Excellency the President? How can you say that there was non-application of mind by the President,” the Bench asked Prakash.

Mehta countered the submissions made on behalf of Mukesh, asserting that all the records, exhibits and judgments in the case were placed before the President.

Mukesh had filed the mercy petition after the Supreme Court rejected his curative petition against its verdict confirming the death sentence awarded to him.