New Delhi, March 2: The convicts languishing behind the Tihar jail in the 2012 Delhi gangrape and murder case, also known as Nirbhaya case, might file a curative petition challenging their capital punishment, the counsel for the convicts told Delhi's Patiala House Court on Saturday. On the next date of hearing which is April 6, Tihar authorities have been instructed by the Court to file a status report in the case. Nirbhaya Case: Mother Says 'Culprits Still Alive is Failure of Law & Order'.

A Curative petition is the last resort of corrective measure which can be pleaded for in any judgment or decision passed by the Supreme Court.

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On July 9, 2018, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and comprising Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice R. Bhanumathi, upheld the death sentence awarded to four of the accused in May 2017 after three of them – Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma and Pawan Gupta – filed a petition in the court to review the judgment. Akshay Singh, the fourth convict, had not filed a review petition against his death sentence and one of the accused in the case Ram Singh, committed suicide in jail three months after the crime.

The mother of Nirbhaya had expressed disappointment on December 16 last year, which was the sixth anniversary of the brutal crime, saying that the culprits of her daughter's death are still alive and it is a failure of law and order situation in the country (that they were yet to be hanged). She also passed an advice for the girls and their parents, saying that "We want to tell the girls everywhere to not consider themselves weak and request parents to not deprive their girls of education."

The 23-year-old victim was raped on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a moving bus in South Delhi by five men and a juvenile. The victim was brutally assaulted before being thrown out of the moving bus along with her male friend. She succumbed to injuries at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore on December 29, where she had been airlifted for medical treatment.

The news of the incident triggered widespread outrage and protests not only across the country but the world as well, and she subsequently came to be known as ‘Nirbhaya’, the fearless. The incident prompted the government to overhaul anti-rape laws after students, girls and women protested in large numbers.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 02, 2019 03:58 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).