The Delhi court has on Thursday issued a fresh death warrant against the four convicts of the Nirbhaya case through which the court directed the Tihar prison authorities to execute them on March 20 at 5.30 am inside the prison premises. 

The order which can also be called as the fourth death warrant against the convicts has come exactly three days after the court had halted the execution for the third time. As per the previous order, they should have been executed on March 3rd, 2020. However, one of the convicts had approached Indian President Ram Nath Kovind with his mercy petition following which the court has postponed the execution on March 2nd until further orders.

The Delhi court bench headed by Additional Sessions Justice Dharmendra Rana has passed the latest warrant and fixed the execution date as March 20 and the reports say that the court has passed the order after the Delhi government stated that all the convicts have exhausted the legal remedies they had in their accounts. Initially, the convicts had battled with the available remedies to halt the execution by filing back to back curative, review, and mercy petitions. However, their petitions had extended their time and not acquitted them from the sentence. 

Their petitions were rejected by the court and the President and with the new directive, the reports have stated that they would be hanged in the designated date as they are left with no legal relief. Earlier, in just two months, the Delhi court has postponed the execution date for three times. On January 7th, the Delhi court has issued its first death warrant directing the Tihar authorities to execute them on January 22nd. However, one of the convicts moved to President with the mercy plea days before the scheduled date. As per the Act, a convict must be given 14 days between the date of the rejection of the mercy plea and the date of execution.

The execution was postponed to February 1st and the other convict had approached the president with his turn of filing mercy petition and on January 31st, the execution was halted for the second time and it was again scheduled on March 3rd. However, it was also turned down and now the fourth death warrant was issued and the convicts have been scheduled to execution on March 20, 2020, at 5.30 am. According to ANI, Nirbhaya's mother Asha Devi said that she hopes the convicts will be hanged to death on the designated date as they have exhausted all the legal remedies.

Also read: Justice for Nirbhaya: Delhi court halts the execution for the third time!