Will Nirbhaya’s killers be hanged separately: SC verdict on Feb 11

New Delhi, Feb 07: The Supreme Court has posted for February 11 a plea by the Centre against the verdict of the Delhi Court, which had rejected the individual hanging of the convicts.

The court had sought that the convicts be hanged separately.

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.

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.