Chief Justice of India SA Bobde on Tuesday recused himself from hearing a petition in the Nirbhaya rape and murder case, reportedly saying one of the advocates who represented the woman is his family member.

CJI Bobde opted out of the hearing as his nephew Arjun Bobde appeared for the victim.

The CJI said the court will constitute another bench, which will begin hearing the review petition of one of the convicts — Akshay Kumar Singh — in the case tomorrow morning.

Speaking on the development, Nirbhaya’s mother Asha Devi said that she was hoping the review petition would be rejected today itself but expressed confidence that the plea would be dismissed tomorrow and the convicts are hanged soon.

“Like we have waited for 7 years, we will wait for 1 more day. Hopefully, the review petition will be rejected tomorrow and they will be hanged soon,” she told reporters.

The three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde also comprising Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice R Banumathi was hearing the case.

The Supreme Court was to hear the plea of a convict on death row in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case, seeking the review of the 2017 top court judgement upholding his death penalty.

The review plea filed by the convict Akshay Kumar Singh, through his lawyer AP Singh, had sought clemency, citing the depleting air quality and water pollution in the city, which has negatively impacted the life span of the citizens.

The apex court has also allowed the victim’s mother plea, who is opposing review of the death penalty.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court had already dismissed the review pleas of three other convicts — Mukesh (30), Pawan Gupta (23) and Vinay Sharma (24) — also on death row. The court found no merit in conducting the review and upheld the capital punishment given by the trial court and confirmed by the Delhi High Court in the case.

One of the accused in the case, Ram Singh, had allegedly committed suicide at Tihar Jail in Delhi.

A juvenile, who was among the accused, was convicted by a juvenile justice board. He was released from a reformation home after serving a three-year term.

A 23-year-old paramedic student, who came to be known as Nirbhaya, was gang-raped on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a running bus in south Delhi by six persons and severely assaulted before being thrown out on the road. She succumbed to injuries on December 29 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.