The apex court stayed the hanging for a week until a fresh review petition challenging the death penalty awarded to Koli is heard in an open courtroom by a Bench of three judges of the SC.
A bench of Justices H.L. Dattu and A.R. Dave passed the stay order hours before Koli was scheduled to be hanged.
The hook and loop to hang Koli had arrived from Naini Central Jail in Allahabad to the Chaudhary Charan Singh district jail in Meerut, where the serial killed was shifted few days ago for his execution.
"We approached Justice Dattu at 1.30 am. There was a sitting of a Bench of Justices Dattu and Dave, which ordered that the execution be stayed for a period of a week until Koli's fresh review be heard by a Bench comprising three judges of the Supreme Court in an open courtroom, where his counsel will be allowed to submit limited oral arguments on his behalf pleading for reversal of his reversal of death penalty," Indira Jaising, senior advocate said.
It is to be noted that Koli's review petition was rejected on July 25 by the same Bench. At that time the bench had said that there was no merit in it.
But a 4:1 majority judgment pronounced on September 3 by a Constitution Bench led by CJI R.M. Lodha has granted a temporary reprieve for Koli.
The verdict of the Constitution Bench paved the way for death row convict to move the Supreme Court afresh. The Constitution Bench judgment authored by Justice Rohinton Nariman had held that "the fundamental right to life and the irreversibility of a death sentence mandate that oral hearing be given at the review stage in death sentence cases, as a just, fair and reasonable procedure under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution."
Koli was found guilty of serial rapes and murders between 2005 and 2006 at his employer house in Nithari and was sentenced to death in four cases and his death sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court in 2011.
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