The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a plea which sought a media gag order on the issue of murder accused Malayali nurse Nimisha Priya, who is currently on death row in Yemen.
"I am not responsible if something happens to Nimisha Priya", said evangelist Dr K.A. Paul, who had filed the plea due to what he called "unverified public statements" that the media had made on the case, as per a Live Law post on X.
"I am not responsible if something happens to #NimishaPriya", said evangelist Dr. KA Paul to #SupremeCourt today after his petition seeking a media gag order qua the Keralite nurse's case was not entertained
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) August 25, 2025
Apparently, Paul has been in touch with the victim's family and wanted… pic.twitter.com/A1146Gr7Ab
It added that Dr Paul had been in touch with Nimisha Priya's family and wanted an order against media reports.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta refused to allow Paul's petition, in view of a statement by the Union that it would address the media reports issue.
"What do you want? Do you want nobody should come out and say anything to media? Attorney general has said that government of India will ensure nobody briefs media. What else you want?" the bench asked, as per an Economic Times report.
Attorney General R. Venkataramani has earlier said that the Nimisha Priya case was a "very sensitive matter", and that he would ensure no media briefings took place till it concluded.
Just a month earlier, the evangelist and Global Peace Initiative founder had claimed that Nimisha Priya's sentence, imposed five years ago, had been cancelled after days and nights of extensive efforts by both Yemeni and Indian leaders.
However, India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) later clarified that Nimisha Priya's death sentence had only been postponed to an unspecified later date, and not cancelled.
Nimisha Priya, who was convicted of murdering Yemeni national Talal Abdo Mahdi in 2017, for which she was sentenced to death in 2020. She was scheduled to be executed on July 16, but this was postponed, reportedly due to negotiations by the Indian government.
However, in a letter posted to Yemen's Attorney General Judge Abdul Salam Al-Houthi on Sunday, Talal's brother Abdul Fattah Mahdi urged the bench to immediately execute Nimisha.
"We categorically reject all attempts at reconciliation," said the letter, noting that new execution date has not been announced more than a month after the postponement.
