New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Wednesday said all the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case 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 Centre and the Delhi government immediately moved the Supreme Court challenging the HC's order. The trial court had on January 31 stayed "till further orders" execution of the four convicts — Mukesh Kumar Singh, 32, Pawan Gupta, 25, Vinay Kumar Sharma, 26, and Akshay Kumar, 31, lodged in Tihar jail.

Justice Suresh Kumar Kait directed the convicts to exhaust within seven days all the legal remedies after which the authorities should act as per law. "It cannot be disputed that the convicts have frustrated the process by using delaying tactics," it added