Nirbhaya Gangrape Case: Supreme Court Dismisses Vinay Sharma’s Petition Challenging Rejection of Mercy Plea

With this, both Mukesh and Vinay have exhausted all their legal options, inching closer to execution.

New Delhi: A three-judge Supreme Court bench, headed by Justice R Banumathi, on Friday dismissed Vinay Sharma’s petition, challenging the rejection of his mercy plea by the President. “We don’t see any ground to interfere with the decision of the honourable President,” the bench said. With this, both Mukesh and Vinay have exhausted all their legal options, inching closer to execution. The Centre has been pushing for separate execution of the convicts as the execution is getting delayed because of individual appeals. However, with today’s development, the entanglement seems to have eased up. Akshay Thakur hasn’t filed a challenge petition after his mercy plea was rejected and the deadline of one week is over. Pawan Gupta, the other convict, didn’t file any plea after his review plea was rejected.

Here’s where the case stands now:

Legal Options	Mukesh Singh	Vinay Sharma	Akshay Thakur	Pawan Gupta
Review Plea	Dismissed	Dismissed	Dismissed	Dismissed
Curative Plea	Dismissed	Dismissed	Dismissed	Not filed
Mercy Plea	Dismissed	Dismissed	Dismissed	Not Filed
Challenge	Dismissed	Dismissed

Vinay’s mercy petition was rejected by the President on February 1. In his petition, Vinay’s advocate AP Singh claimed that there were lapses in the procedure in which the mercy plea was rejected. Signatures were obtained through WhatsApp as Delhi election was going on, he said. It was also alleged that Vinay was being tortured in the cell.

The court had on January 31 stayed “till further orders” execution of the four convicts in the case. The first order for execution of death sentence, issued on January 7 for January 22, was stayed on January 17. The second warrant, issued on January 17, for February 1 was stayed on January 31. In both the cases, mercy pleas were pending before the President. On February 5, the High Court told the convicts to exhaust all legal remedies within a week.