Asha Devi's daughter, who came to be called 'Nirbhaya', was gang-raped by six men on December 16, 2012
Asha Devi, Nirbhaya's mother, broke down and cried at a Delhi court this evening after being told that a death warrant for the hanging of the four convicts in the 2012 gang-rape, torture and killing of her daughter - a 23-year-old medical student - in December 2012 would have to be postponed. "Wherever we go, we are told about the rights of the convicts. What about our rights?" she demanded of the judge at the Patiala House Court, breaking down under the heavy burden of a seven-year-long search for justice for her daughter.
Moved by her tears, the judge consoled her and said that while he had "full sympathy" he was bound to follow the law that now required fresh notices to be issued for the execution of the four convicts.
"I have full sympathy with you. I know someone has died but there are their rights too. We are here to listen to you but are also bound by the law," he said.
The issue of the death warrant was stalled after the court said there were new developments in the case - referring to the Supreme Court's verdict and the likelihood of curative petitions or mercy petitions being filed by other convicts.
The court has now asked authorities at Delhi's Tihar Jail, where the convicts are imprisoned, to confirm if they will be filing mercy pleas with the President of India. Additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar Arora then adjourned the matter for January 7.
After the hearing concluded, in heart-breaking scenes outside the courtroom, Asha Devi broke and cried once more, claiming once more that Nirbhaya's parents had no rights.
Nirbhaya's father spoke to reporters shortly after the Supreme Court issued its order
Mere hours earlier the Supreme Court dismissed the last review petition in the case; it had been filed by one of the convicts - Akshay Kumar Singh - who questioned the dying declaration of the woman, alleged "inefficiency to catch the real perpetrators" and said that because Delhi is a gas chamber a death penalty was moot.
The court refused to entertain the plea. It pointed to similarities to petitions filed by the three other convicts and said that a review petition was not a platform for "re-hearing of the appeal over and over again".
Nirbhaya's parents expressed cautious joy at the time, with her father reminding the world that their seven-year journey had been a painful one and bitter experience had taught them "we didn't know what would happen and every second has been difficult".
The review petitions of three other convicts in the case - Mukesh, 30, Pawan Gupta, 23, and Vinay Sharma, 24 - had been dismissed earlier. Of the six accused of Nirbhaya's rape and murder, four were convicted, Ram Singh committed suicide and a juvenile was released after three years in a reform home.
The 23-year-old paramedic student was gang-raped and brutally assaulted on a moving bus in south Delhi on December 16, 2012, before being dumped on a road, naked and critically injured.
She died on December 29 in Singapore.
With input from PTI