New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the request of Nirbhaya case death-row convict to pursue recommendation for rejection of his mercy plea.
The convict's counsel alleged in the court that the Delhi lieutenant governor and its home minister had not signed the recommendation for rejection of his mercy plea.
The lawyer further said that social investigation report and medical status report of the convict was not taken into consideration by President Ram Nath Kovind while rejecting the mercy petition. He also alleged that convict was kept in illegal confinement and suffered immense trauma and physical assault in jail.
However, a bench of Justices R Banumathi, Ashok Bhushan and A S Bopanna perused the record and said the LG and the home minister indeed signed the recommendation for rejection of his mercy petition.
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Sharma, through advocate A P singh, moved the apex court challenging the rejection of his mercy petition by the president. He claimed the "hurried rejection" was "mala fide" and violated the letter and spirit of the Constitution.
The Supreme Court also deferred the hearing on Centre's plea seeking separate execution of four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case to Friday and asked the convicts to file their counter replies by then.
The bench appointed senior advocate Anjana Prakash as amicus curiae to represent the convict Pawan Kumar Gupta.
The bench said it is deferring the hearing till 2 pm Friday in wake of a trial court order on Wednesday, which directed the District Legal Services Authority to provide Gupta's father with a list of its empanelled advocates to choose from to represent the convict.
(With inputs from PTI)
