New Delhi: The Supreme Court has stayed the death penalty of two of the four convicted for the horrific gangrape and murder of a medical student in a moving bus in Delhi in December 2012.
A special bench of Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai and Justice Shiva Kirti Singh stayed execution of the death sentence till March 31.
Justice Desai said: "We stay the execution of the sentences of Pawan and Mukesh till March 31, 2014. We direct the registry to take this matter before the chief justice for registering before an appropriate bench. We direct the court registry to furnish a copy of this order to prison authorities forthwith."
Of the four convicted men, Mukesh and Pawan had filed an appeal in the Supreme Court after the Delhi High Court on Thursday upheld the death sentence given by a trial court.
Mukesh, Vinay Sharma, Pawan and Akshay Thakur were given the capital punishment by the lower court in September 2013, satisfying a public clamour for them to be hanged for a crime that forced India to confront its culture of violence against women.
The victim, who was raped for an hour and tortured with an iron rod on a moving bus, became a symbol of the dangers women face in a country where a rape is reported on average every 21 minutes and acid attacks and cases of molestation are common.
India is struggling to curb violence against women.
Social commentators say patriarchal attitudes towards women have not been diluted by more than a decade of rapid economic growth. Reports of rape, dowry deaths, molestation, sexual harassment and other crimes against women rose by 6.4 percent in 2012 from the previous year, the government said.
On the night of December 16, 2012, Ram Singh, Vinay, Akshay, Pawan, Mukesh and a juvenile had gangraped the girl in a bus after luring her and her 28-year-old male friend, who was also assaulted, on board the vehicle, which was later found to be plying illegally on Delhi roads.
The girl succumbed to her injuries on December 29, 2012 in a Singapore hospital.
Ram Singh, who was the prime accused, was found dead in his cell in Tihar Jail in March last year and the proceedings against him were abated.
The sixth accused, the juvenile was on August 31, 2013 convicted and sentenced to a maximum of three years in a reformation home by the Juvenile Justice Board.
