The Supreme Court would on Thursday take up a curative petition by one of the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case. He contended that capital punishment was being awarded by courts as "panacea" in the face of public pressure and public opinion on violence against women.
A bench of Justices N V Ramana, Arun Mishra, R F Nariman, R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan would consider the curative petition by Akshay Kumar Singh (31) on January 30.
The curative petition, decided in a chamber of judges without presence of counsel, is the last legal recourse available to a person in a court of law to seek reconsideration of the judgment.
Of the four convicts, a similar plea by Vinay Kumar Sharma and Mukesh Kumar Singh had already been dismissed by the apex court. The fourth convict, Pawan Gupta, has not filed a curative petition.
Meanwhile, convict Vinay filed a mercy petition with the President on Wednesday.
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