The Delhi High Court on Sunday reserved its judgement on Centre's plea challenging trial court's order which stayed the execution of all the convicts in the 2012 Delhi gang-rape case.

On February 1, the High Court issued a notice to all the convicts in the case as well as the Tihar Jail officials seeking a response on the Centre's plea.

In the hearing on Sunday-Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said, " Law requires a 14 days notice period is given to the convicts to take care of their affairs before they are hanged. In this case, on 13th day, a convict will file some plea & then ask for a warrant to be stayed against all. They all are acting in tandem."

He further argued that convicts have to be hanged together only if an “appeal or application” is pending, however, that doesn't include mercy petitions."Mercy jurisdiction is always a personal jurisdiction. The President may show mercy towards a convict because of his circumstances. How will that be applicable to other convicts?" he said.

Mehta further stated that credibility of the judiciary is at stake citing the delay in executing the death sentence of the convicts. To further strengthen his argument, he alluded to the police encounter of the rape accused in Telangana, saying, "People celebrated after the encounter of rape accused in Telangana. It was not the celebration of the police, it was the celebration of justice."

Convicts lawyer AP Singh argued that the convicts belong to rural areas, Dalit families, they came to Delhi and got implicated, adding, the convicts cannot be made to bear brunt of ambiguity in the law.

Senior advocate Rebecca John who was arguing for Mukesh Singh, one of the rape convicts, in the court said, "The high court has to confirm the sentence of death. The sentencing order of the trial court was one common order for all convicts. The convicts were sentenced by a composite order which was upheld by the HC and the SC.  She added, ''My question is, does the scheme envisage the delinking of the convicts? A common sentence and a common execution. That's all I'm seeking today."

A Delhi court on Friday stayed till further orders the hanging of three Nirbhaya gangrape-murder case death row convicts, that was scheduled for February 1. While staying the execution, the Delhi court observed, "The Courts of this country cannot afford to adversely discriminate any convict, including death row convict, in pursuit of his legal remedies, by turning Nelson's eye towards him."

The three convicts - Akshay Kumar Singh, Pawan Gupta, and Vinay Kumar Sharma - had moved the court seeking a stay on their hanging. The fourth convict Mukesh Kumar Singh has exhausted all his legal remedies.

The four convicts were scheduled to be hanged at 6 AM on February 1 after a Delhi court issued death warrants against them earlier this month. This was the second death warrant issued after Mukesh filed a mercy petition to the President and several pleas in various courts.

Earlier, on January 7, the court had fixed January 22 as the hanging date.

A 23-year-old psychotherapy student, dubbed by media as 'Nirbhaya', was gang-raped and brutalised on a moving bus on December 16, 2012, before being dumped on the road. She was airlifted to Singapore where she died on December 29, 2012.