Nirbhaya case: SC to hear tomorrow Centre's appeal for separate hanging

New Delhi, Feb 06: The Supreme Court will on Friday take up petitions filed by the central and Delhi government seeking separate hanging of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape-and-murder case.

Additional Solicitor General K M Natraj mentioned the appeals for an early hearing before a bench led by Justice N V Ramana on Thursday who ordered that the case be listed tomorrow.

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday rejected the plea from the Centre to hang the four convicts separately.

The high court also faulted the authorities concerned for not taking steps for issuance of death warrant after the rejection of appeals of the accused by the Supreme Court in 2017.

The high court, however, said, "It cannot be disputed that the convicts have frustrated the process by using delaying tactics.

"The Centre and the Delhi government had challenged the trial court's January 31 order staying "till further orders" the execution of all the four convicts in the case -- Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31), who are lodged in Tihar Jail.