The Delhi High Court today said all four convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case had to be executed together, not separately. It dismissed the Centre’s plea against the trial court’s order staying the execution of their death sentence.

Hours after the verdict, the Centre and the Delhi Government moved the Supreme Court. The trial court had on January 31 stayed till further orders execution of Mukesh Kumar Singh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Kumar Sharma and Akshay Kumar , whose mercy petition has been rejected by the President, Home Ministry sources said.

Justice Suresh Kumar Kait directed the convicts to exhaust within seven days all remedies available to them after which the authorities should act as per law. The High Court also faulted the authorities concerned for not taking steps for issuance of death warrants after rejection of appeals of the convicts by the Supreme Court in 2017.

As a copy of the HC verdict was awaited, the Centre and Delhi Government preferred not to wait anymore, stating in the plea in the SC that the convicts could be hanged separately as Mukesh had exhausted all remedies, including mercy plea.

Regarding the preliminary objection raised by counsel for Mukesh over maintainability of the Centre’s plea, the HC said the Centre was competent to file the petition as it was the Delhi Police which had been probing the case.