The Supreme Court in a special sitting on Saturday night stayed the hanging of eight death convicts whose mercy petitions were rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee earlier this week.

A bench comprising Justices P Sathasivam and M Y Eqbal stayed the executions on a PIL seeking to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment on grounds of inordinate delay in disposal of the mercy petitions.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has also stayed the hanging of Dharampal till April 10, who is facing death sentence for killing five members of a family.