The prison authorities informed the lawyers that they had received instructions from the Chief Secretary not to allow anybody to meet the convicts.

Outside the jail,  the lawyers were informed by various persons that some prisoners were going to be executed on Sunday morning and hence nobody would be allowed to meet them.

They were also told that gallows were being prepared.

Shamik  Narain said: "The Karnataka Prison Manual and Rules explicitly provide that execution of the death sentence shall be scheduled [for] not earlier than 14 days from the date of receipt of rejection of the mercy petitions.

"Therefore, since the convicts were informed of the rejection of their mercy petitions only on the evening of February 12, their executions cannot be scheduled before February 26.”

Shamik Narain said that as per the law laid down by a Constitution Bench of this court in the case of Triveniben vs. State of Gujarat “undue long delay in the execution of the sentence of death will entitle the condemned prisoner to approach this court under Article 32.”

"Therefore, the nine-year delay in the disposal of the mercy petitions gave the petitioners a right to approach this court and seek commutation of the death sentence and to challenge the rejection of their mercy petitions.

"Unless they were allowed to access these rights, the convicts would be executed in complete violation of the procedure established by law,"  Narain said.

He also sought a direction to the Karnataka government to permit lawyers to meet the convicts to obtain instructions and signatures on vakalatnamas, affidavits and other court-related documents.