The Supreme Court deferred the hearing on Centre's plea seeking separate execution of four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case to Friday and asked the convicts to file their counter replies by then.

A bench of Justices R Banumathi, Ashok Bhushan and A S Bopanna appointed senior advocate Anjana Prakash as amicus curiae on Thursday to represent the convict Pawan Kumar Gupta.

The bench said it is deferring the hearing till 2 pm Friday in wake of a trial court order on Wednesday, which directed the District Legal Services Authority to provide Gupta's father with a list of its empanelled advocates to choose from to represent the convict.

Gupta is the only convict who has not yet filed a curative petition the last legal remedy available to a person which is decided in-chamber. He also has the option of filing a mercy plea against the death sentence.