The Supreme Court has agreed to hear on Friday the Centre's appeal challenging the Delhi High Court's verdict dismissing its plea against stay on the execution of the four death row convicts in the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder case.

Additional solicitor-general K. M. Natraj, appearing for the Centre, mentioned the matter for urgent listing before a bench comprising justices N. V. Ramana, Sanjiv Khanna and Krishna Murari.

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 rejected.

On Wednesday, the high court said all the four convicts have to be executed together, not separately, and dismissed the Centre's plea against the trial court's order staying the execution of their death sentence.

The high court also faulted the authorities concerned for not taking steps for issuance of death warrant after the rejection of appeals of the accused by the Supreme Court in 2017.

The Delhi government had sought warrants for execution of death sentence to the four convicts on December 18, 2019.

Justice Suresh Kumar Kait directed the convicts to exhaust within seven days all the remedies available to them after which the authorities should act as per law.

The high court however said: “It cannot be disputed that the convicts have frustrated the process by using delaying tactics.”