The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected curative petitions filed by two of the four death-row convicts in 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case.
A bench of Justices NV Ramana, Arun Mishra, RF Nariman, R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan heard the curative petitions filed by Vinay Sharma and Mukesh Kumar.
The curative petition was the last judicial recourse for the two after a Delhi court on January 7 issued a death warrant in their name and announced January 22 as the date of their execution.
If curative petitions are rejected, a mercy petition before the president is the only option left for the convicts.
Of the four convicts, Akshay Kumar Singh and Pawan Gupta — the two other convicts — have yet to file curative petitions.
The Top Court had earlier rejected the review pleas filed by all four convicts.
The 23-year-old paramedic student was gang-raped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 in a moving bus in the national capital.
She passed away at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore while undergoing the treatment.
