The Supreme Court today dismissed the review petition filed by Akshay Kumar Singh, a death row convict in the Nirbhaya gangrape case of 2012.
The Bench headed by Justice R Banumathi and comprising of Justices Ashok Bhushan and AS Bopanna dismissed the plea today after CJI SA Bobde recused himself from hearing the matter yesterday.
While dismissing the review petition, the Bench said, “We do not find any error on the face of the record.”
Justice Banumathi while reading the judgment said,
“Grounds raised are identical to the ones raised in the review Petitions filed in this case by other convicts which were dismissed then.
So far as the flaws in the investigation, all these things have been considered by the trial court, High Court and then it was confirmed by this court too.”
Reacting to the SC’s verdict, Nirbhaya’s mother Asha Devi said that she was very happy.
Singh’s counsel, AP Singh told the Supreme Court that Singh wants to file mercy petition before the President of India and sought three weeks time to file it. However, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that under law, one week is the time prescribed to file a mercy petition before the President. The SC bench said that the petitioner, Singh, can avail the relief of a mercy petition within that time.
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