"The death warrants should be executed together. Thus, convict Mukesh cannot be separated from the other convicts. I hereby direct the convicts to use their remedies within one week," Justice Suresh Kumar Kait said while pronouncing the order.

 

The order was passed on a petition filed by the Central government challenging a sessions court's order which stayed the death warrants issued against the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case.

 

The hanging of Vinay, Pawan, Akshay and Mukesh, originally scheduled for 7 AM on January 22, was postponed to February 1 at 6AM,  but was deferred again on January 31 after Mukesh filed an application before a Delhi court contending that other convicts are yet to avail the legal remedies and cannot be hanged separately.

 

The stay imposed by the trial court was challenged by the Centre the next day.

 

Mukesh and Vinay have exhausted their legal remedies. However, a decision on Akshay's mercy plea is pending before the President. Pawan has yet not availed of the remedy of curative and mercy petition, which will be last judicial and constitutional resort for him.

 

The 23-year-old victim, later named Nirbhaya, was brutally gang-raped and tortured and succumbed to her injuries a few days later in 2013.