The Supreme Court upholds the death sentence to the four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case. The apex court has upheld the Delhi High Court order handing out the death sentence to the four men.

The matter was heard by the apex court bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra and consisting of Justices R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan.

The convicts - Akshay, Pawan, Vinay Sharma and Mukesh - challenged the Delhi High Court order which had sentenced them to the gallows.

Earlier, the trial court also had sentenced all the four convicts to death penalty.

The verdict was expected. It is well known that Justice Dipak Misra doesn't hesitate to give a death sentence and is exceedingly sensitive to women's rights and liberties.

He has upheld rape as depravity and not curable and recently, passed a woman friendly judgement saying that "no woman can be compelled to love; she always has right to say no".

In December, 2012, six people gang-raped a 23-year-old physiotherapy intern in a moving bus. The woman succumbed to her injuries in a Singapore hospital on December 29, 2012.

One of the accused, Ram Singh hanged himself in prison, while another person, who was a juvenile at the time of the crime, was convicted in August last year and will serve the maximum sentence of three years in a reform home.