AMN / NEW DELHI
Supreme Court today dismissed a petition filed by Mukesh Kumar Singh, one of the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case. A three-judge bench headed by Justice R Banumathi said that expeditious disposal of mercy plea by the President doesn’t mean non-application of mind by him.
The bench said, all relevant material including judgements pronounced by trial court, high court and Supreme Court were placed before the President when he was considering the mercy plea of the convict. The apex court also said that alleged sufferings in prison can’t be grounds to challenge the rejection of mercy petition.
In his petition, Mukesh had challenged the rejection of his mercy petition by the President.
Meanwhile, another death row convict in Nirbhaya case Akshay Kumar today approached Supreme Court with a curative petition. His counsel AP Singh said, the apex court registry has asked the petitioner to file some additional documents along with the petition and he is in the process of completing the formalities.