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President Ram Nath Kovind has rejected the mercy petition of Akshay Kumar Singh, one of the four men facing the gallows in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, Home Ministry officials said on Wednesday.
Singh filed the mercy petition before the president a few days ago. The President has rejected Singh's mercy plea, an official said.
Kovind has already rejected the clemency petition of two other accused in the case Mukesh Singh and Vinay Kumar Sharma.
Earlier in the day, the Delhi high court said all the four convicts have to be executed together, not separately, and dismissed the Centre's plea against the trial court's order staying the execution of their death sentence.
Justice Suresh Kumar Kait, however, directed the convicts to exhaust within seven days all the remedies available to them after which the authorities should act as per law.
The Centre and the Delhi government were quick to move the Supreme Court challenging the rejection.
The also faulted the authorities concerned for not taking steps for issuance of death warrant after rejection of appeals of the convicts by the Supreme Court in 2017.
The trial court had on January 31 stayed 'till further orders' execution of 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.
A lawyer associated with the matter said the grounds taken for challenge in the top court are almost same as taken in the high court while filing the appeal against the trial court order.
He said that since the copy of the high court verdict is awaited, the Centre and the Delhi government preferred not to wait anymore and have stated in the petition in the apex court that the convicts can be hanged separately as Mukesh has exhausted all his remedies, including the mercy plea.
The high court however said: "It cannot be disputed that the convicts have frustrated the process by using delaying tactics."
The parents of the victim had urged the court to expeditiously decide the Centre's plea and were assured by the judge that the order would be passed at the earliest.
The trial court had on January 7 issued black warrants for the execution of all the four convicts in Tihar jail at 7 am on January 22.
However, they could not be hanged due to pendency of mercy petition of one of them.
On January 17, the trial court fixed February 1, 6 am as the hanging date and time.
On January 31, the trial court again stayed the execution as the counsel for three convicts -- Pawan, Vinay and Akshay -- urged it to adjourn the matter 'sine die' saying their legal remedies were yet to be exhausted.
The Centre and the Delhi government approached the high court on February 1, challenging the trial court's order staying the execution.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing them, had contended that it was a deliberate and calculated design of the convicts to 'frustrate mandate of law' by getting their execution delayed and they were not entitled to any more time.
The counsel for the convicts opposed the plea saying it was not maintainable and that the Centre was never a party in the case proceedings before the trial court and while the government was accusing the convict of delay, it has woken up only now.
Nirbhaya, 23-year-old paramedic student, was raped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a moving bus in south Delhi by six persons, before being thrown out on the road.
She died on December 29, 2012 in Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Hospital.
One of the six accused in the case, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar Jail.
A juvenile, who was among the accused, was convicted by a juvenile justice board and was released from a reformation home after serving a three-year term.
The top court, in its 2017 verdict, had upheld the capital punishment awarded to the convicts by the Delhi high court and the trial court.
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Satisfied but will be happy only when convicts are hanged: Nirbhaya's mother
Nirbhaya's mother Asha Devi on Wednesday said she will be happy only on the day when the convicts are hanged, shortly after the Delhi HC gave a week's time to the four for exhaustion of all legal remedies.
"I am satisfied but I will be happy only on the day when the convicts will be hanged. The court has given them a week's time, we will wait till then.
"This was the government's appeal and the government will think over it how early could they be hanged," she said.
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Convicts to be hanged soon: Law Minister
Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, meanwhile, assured Lok Sabha that convicts in the case will be hanged soon.
The culprits are trying to delay punishment which is not justified, he said.
Several members especially women MPs across party lines raised the issue of attack on women in various parts of the country.
Expressing deep anguish over such incidents, Prasad said, "I have deep concern in this regard."
As far as hanging of convicts in the Nirbhaya case is concerned, the minister said, the Supreme Court has already sentenced them to death.
"We are very strict... justice will be given to her. Convicts will be hanged soon," he assured the House.