New Delhi: The Supreme Court judge Justice R Bhanumati reportedly fainted while dictating the order on Centre’s plea seeking separate hanging of the four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case today.
Justice Bhanumati had to be carried back into her chamber as she blacked out for a few seconds while dictating the order.
The case hearing was adjourned after the incident until next week.
The three-judge bench was inclined to wait for the trial court order on Monday but later changed their opinion.
“Why not wait till Monday to see what the trial court does. As of now, there is nothing pending by any convict in any court,” the apex court said.
The convict Vijay Sharma’s plea was rejected by the bench where he challenged rejection of his mercy petition by the President alleging that it was done in a “mala fide” manner.
The Centre, through its Additional Solicitor General KM Natraj, had moved the top court on Wednesday, seeking an urgent hearing on its appeal assailing the verdict which held on Wednesday that the death row convicts have to be executed together and not separately.
Solicitor Natraj told before the court that jail authorities are unable to execute the convicts in the case despite the fact that their review petitions have been dismissed and curative petitions and mercy pleas of three of them have been rejected.
Earlier last month, the trial court had put a stay on the execution of the convicts “till further orders”.
The four convicts in the case lodged in Tihar Jail are Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31).