Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court has been told that "hanging of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya rape and murder case can't take place on January 22. The execution of convicts will surely not take place on January 22. The fate of a death-row convict comes to a finality only after his mercy plea is rejected by the President."

The father of one of the four death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape-and-murder case moved a Delhi court on Thursday, challenging an order refusing direction of an FIR against the sole eyewitness in the matter. The application filed by Pawan Gupta's father Heera Lal Gupta seeks a direction to the Delhi police to lodge an FIR against the eyewitness, a friend of the 23-year-old victim, for allegedly giving interviews to various television news channels after charging money.

The sessions court put up the matter for hearing on January 27. The magisterial court had dismissed a similar application on January 6.

The eyewitness was accompanying the victim on the bus when the gruesome incident took place and he had also sustained injuries. The application cited certain recent media reports, which alleged that the witness charged money to appear on various news channels, the applicant's lawyer, AP Singh, said.