SC to review Nirbhaya case convict's plea on Dec 17

A Supreme Court's three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India S A Bobde would on Tuesday consider a review plea by one of the four Nirbhaya case convicts, Akshay Kumar Singh, against the death penalty awarded to him in the 2012 sensational gang rape and murder case.

The top court had in 2017 judgement confirmed capital punishment to all the four convicts.

The bench, set up to hear the review petition, would also comprise Justices R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan. The matter would be taken up at 2 pm.

On December 10, Akshay, who did not sought review of the judgement along with three other convicts, filed his petition through his lawyer A P Singh against his possible execution.

Among other grounds, he said there was already a higher health risks such as rising pollution level in Delhi and said, "Life is going short to short, then why death penalty."

The 23-year-old paramedic student was brutally gang-raped on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a running bus in South Delhi. She had died on December 29, 2012 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.

Nirbhaya's mother had also moved a plea to oppose the review petition. She had filed a separate in Delhi court for issuance of death warrants against the convicts.