New Delhi: The Supreme Court today dismissed a petition filed by one of the convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case.
Convict Vinay Sharma had contended that the president had not applied his mind while rejecting his mercy petition.
The court dismissed that suggestion, saying that "when the highest constitutional authority, upon perusal of various documents, has taken a decision to reject the mercy petition, it cannot be contended that it did not apply its mind to the documents."
But the long-drawn saga of the Nirbhaya case is not about to come to a conclusion yet. Vinay Sharma is only the second of the four convicts in the case to challenge the president's rejection of their mercy plea.
One other convict, Mukesh Kumar (32), tried and failed to get the court to second guess the president.
A third convict, Akshay Kumar (31) has had his mercy petition rejected but he has not petitioned the Supreme Court yet. It is very likely he will do so.
Then there is the fourth convict, Pawan Gupta (25). He has not yet filed a curative petition in the Supreme Court, the last legal remedy available to him against his conviction. Once he exhausts that option, he can still petition the president for mercy.
The question arises whether the four convicts cannot be hanged individually. They cannot be. The Delhi High Court has ruled that all the four convicts have to hanged together.
