The Patiala House Court on Monday issued fresh death warrants for all four individuals convicted in the 2012 Delhi gang-rape and murder case (aka the Nirbhaya case). According to the order, all four convicts are to be hanged on March 3 at 6 AM.

The four convicts on death row are Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta, and Akshay Thakur. The Delhi High Court had earlier said that all the four convicts in the Nirbhaya case have to hanged together and not separately.

The court was hearing a plea filed by Nirbhaya's parents and the Delhi government on February 11 seeking fresh death warrants for the four convicts after the Supreme Court granted liberty to the authorities to approach the trial court for issuance of fresh date for the execution of these convicts.

Following the issuance of fresh death warrants today, Nirbhaya's mother Asha Devi said, "I am not very happy as this is the third time that death warrant has been issued. We have struggled so much, so I am satisfied that the death warrant has been issued finally. I hope they (convicts) will be executed on March 3."

Asha Devi has been fighting a long and difficult legal battle for over seven years, determined to see the criminals hanged. To be precise, it took more than seven years for her to see the light of justice. Why the legal system in this country is so wound-up that it takes such an abnormally long time to close a case, even after the establishment of a fast-track court for the proceedings, remains up for investigation later.

The date of execution, first fixed for January 22 in Tihar jail, was postponed for 6 AM on February 1 by a January 17 court order. The trial court later, on January 31 stayed, "till further orders" the execution of the four convicts in the case, who are lodged in Tihar Jail.

However, legal experts have noted that owing to the judicial procedures provided under India's legal system, it is possible that the death row convicts are delaying their ultimate fate by filing petitions and counter-petitions successively.

The Supreme Court had on Friday dismissed Vinay's plea against the rejection of his mercy petition by the President.

The apex court had earlier dismissed a similar plea filed by another death row convict in the case, Mukesh Kumar Singh (32).

The mercy petition by the third convict -- Akshay Kumar (31) -- has also been rejected, but he is yet to challenge the rejection.

The fourth convict Pawan Gupta (25) is yet to exhaust his legal remedies such as filing a curative petition -- the last legal remedy available to a person and the mercy plea.

The 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who came to be known as 'Nirbhaya' (fearless), 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.

The incident generated tremendous public outroar and media coverage demanding justice for the victim.

The accused in the case - Akshay Kumar, Pawan Gupta, Mukesh Singh, Ram Singh, Vinay Sharma, and a minor boy - were promptly arrested under charges of sexual assault and murder.

In 2013, one of the accused, Ram Singh, died in police custody of possible suicide, allegedly committing suicide by hanging himself in Tihar jail days after the trial began.

All of the remaining accused were convicted by a fast-track trial court of rape and murder and while the juvenile, who was said to be the most brutal of the attackers, was given the maximum sentence of three years imprisonment at a reform facility, the rest were sentenced to death by hanging. Subsequently, the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court upheld this judgment.

The juvenile was released in 2015 and sent to an undisclosed location amid concerns over a threat to his life. He, when released, was 20 years old.