“Don’t We Have Any Rights?” Nirbhaya’s Mother Breaks Down in Court!

A Delhi court hearing a request by the police to issue a black warrant to execute the four accused in 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape on Wednesday declined to immediately issue the death warrant.

As one of the convicts recently moved the Supreme Court to review the verdict, Judge Satish Kumar Arora said he wanted to wait for the plea to be decided before issuing the warrant.

“I am not going into these arguments. The fact of the matter is that a mercy petition is pending,” Arora ruled.

He ordered Tihar jail officials to issue a fresh notice to the convicts about their legal remedies and put off the next hearing to January 7.

As the judge was wrapping up the hearing, Nirbhaya's mother broke down. “Do we not have any rights… Wherever we go, we hear people talking about the rights of their (convicts)... What about ours,” she said.

“We have been coming to this place (Patiala House courts complex)... Everywhere we see that the system supports the convicts… It seems they, and not the government and the prosecution are supreme."

However, the mercy petition filed by the convict was dismissed by the Supreme Court just a few hours earlier on Wednesday and the public prosecutor has asked judge Arora to issue the warrant asserting that no curative petitions or mercy petitions are standing in the way.