New Delhi: The Supreme Court will hear the writ plea of one of the death row convicts in the Nirbhaya rape and murder case, Mukesh Kumar Singh against the dismissal of his mercy petition by President Ram Nath Kovind, on Tuesday.

It may be recalled that President of India had rejected the mercy petition of Mukesh Singh on January 17 and following this, Singh had submitted a plea challenging the rejection of the mercy petition last week.

It was on Monday that Chief Justice of India SA Bobde said that if somebody is going to be hanged then nothing can be more urgent than hearing the case out.

The execution of the Nirbhaya convicts is scheduled to February 1 and the CJI took exception to the fact that the plea against rejection of Mercy plea has not been listed for hearing yet, even as the date of execution is nearing.

The three-judge bench of the Supreme Court will begin the hearing at 12:30 pm on the plea filed by convict Mukesh Kumar Singh.

Mukesh Singh had moved the mercy petition before the President after the Supreme Court had dismissed his curative petition against his conviction and death sentence.

As the last-ditch attempt, Mukesh Singh sought an urgent hearing on his plea against the dismissal of the mercy plea before the top court.

“Execution case will be given top priority,” said the bench, which also comprised Justices BR Gavai and Surya Kant.

The 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who came to be known as “Nirbhaya”, was gang-raped and savagely assaulted on the night of December 16, 2012, in a moving bus in South Delhi. She died of her injuries a fortnight later in a Singapore hospital.

Six people — Mukesh, Vinay, Akshay, Pawan, Ram Singh and a juvenile — were named as accused. The prime accused in the Nirbhaya rape and murder case, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in Tihar Jail days after the trial began.