SC Judge Banumathi Faints While Dictating Order on Centre's Plea for Separate Hangings in Nirbhaya Case

New Delhi: Supreme Court judge Justice R Bhanumati fainted while dictating the order on a Centre's petition for separate hanging of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case on Friday.

The judge had to be carried back into the chamber, even as she regained consciousness after blacking out for a few seconds. She has been taken on wheel chair for medical treatment.

The hearing was adjourned till next week after the incident and the bench said the order will be released later.

The three-judge bench had during the hearing said it was inclined to wait for the trial court order on Monday, saying that there seems to be no impediment for the lower court to issue a fresh warrant.

“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.

Just minutes earlier, the court had dismissed convict Vinay Sharma's plea challenging rejection of his mercy petition by the President alleging that it was done in a "mala fide" manner.

But the Solicitor General argued that if the trends in the case are anything to go by, Akshay Kumar will file a plea against the rejection of his mercy plea on Monday and the lower court will be told that SC is seized of the matter, implying further delays.

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.

Natraj told 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. The high court set a week's deadline for them to avail the remaining remedies.

If the convicts choose not to make any type of petition in seven days from now, the institutions/ authorities concerned will deal with the matter, as per the law, without further delay, it said.

The trial court had on January 31 stayed "till further orders" execution of the four convicts in the case -- Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31), who are lodged in Tihar Jail.