Yakub Memon files fresh mercy plea with President; lawyer questions legality of death warrant in SC
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court is expected to decide on Wednesday whether 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memon will be hanged on July 30.
Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi has now begun his arguments in the court.Since his (Yakub Memon) petition is mercy pending before the Governor, he cannot be executed on July 30, argues Andhyarujina.
Yakub’s lawyer Ramachandran concludes arguments in Supreme Court, now intervenor National Law University’s lawyer Andhyarujina begins argument. Senior lawyer Ujjwal Nikam has, meanwhile, said that the hanging of Yakub Memon could be postponed.
BJP and Shiv Sena workers are holding a protest outside Maharashtra Assembly in Mumbai demanding Yakub Memon’s execution. Yakub’s lawyer Raju Ramachandran begins his argument in SC on legality of death warrant.
Tushar Deshmukh, who lost his mother in the 1993 Mumbai blasts, demands that Yakub Memon be hanged. He said: “It was the black day of my life when I lost my mother in 1993 Mumbai blasts. Many people are saying Yakub should not be hanged, which is against our law.
I have signatures of 1600 people given in just 2 hours who all want Yakub to be hanged. I have given a letter to the Governor, have met Maharashtra CM and Nitin Gadkari, will also give these signatures to the President.”
On a day when a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court is hearing the plea of Yakub Memon seeking stay on his execution, the 1993 Mumbai blasts convict has filed a fresh mercy plea with the President, news websites report. Yakub is scheduled to be hanged tomorrow unless the SC puts a stay on his execution.
President Pranab Mukherjee had last year rejected Yakub’s mercy plea. His lawyer had argued that the mercy plea made last year was filed by his family and not Yakub.Yakub Memon’s lawyer R Ramachandran has started his arguments, questions validity of bench which heard curative petition.
A three-judge bench has begun hearing Yakub Memon’s plea seeking stay on death warrant. Investigating Officer of 1993 Mumbai blasts case and retired DIG CBI OP ChatwalI has arrived at the Supreme Court for Yakub Memon plea hearing.
Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, advocate Raju Ramachandran, advocate Andhyarujina and other lawyers reach court room number
A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court is expected to decide on Wednesday whether death row convict Yakub Memon will be hanged on July 30.
The bench will decide whether to stay the death warrant issued by TADA court in Mumbai on April 30 and go into the merits of Memon’s petition which has claimed that the warrant was issued even before the convict exhausted all legal remedies before the court.
The three-judge bench was constituted by Chief Justice of India HL Dattu on Tuesday after a two-judge was split on Memon’s plea seeking stay of his execution scheduled for July 30 (Thursday).
Following disagreement between Justices AR Dave and Kurian Joseph on the issue, the matter was referred to the Chief Justice who then constituted a larger bench of Justices Dipak Misra, Prafulla C Pant and Amitava Roy to decide the destiny of Memon.
Memon, the lone death row convict in 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, turns 53 tomorrow.In the split decision, Justice Dave dismissed Memon’s plea without staying the death warrant while Justice Kurian differed and favoured a stay.
“There will be no order in law if one judge has stayed it (death warrant) and the other has not,” the bench was told when it wanted to know the legal position arising out of the divergence of views between the two judges on the issue.
Both Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi and other senior advocates, including Raju Ramachandran, appearing for Memon, were unanimous on the legal position that needed to be addressed by a larger bench with the indulgence of the CJI.
Justice Dave was of the view that there was no infirmity in the dismissal of curative petition of Memon on July 21 and it was open for the Maharashtra Governor to take a call on his mercy plea as the condemned prisoner has exhausted all available legal remedies.
However, Justice Kurian, who himself had raised a point which was not in Memon’s plea that the apex court had not followed correct procedure in deciding his curative petition, said “this defect needs to be cured” and “the curative petition has to be heard afresh”.
The judge said that in such circumstances, the death warrant has to be stayed.This prompted Memon’s counsel to ask Justice Dave to add a line on staying the death warrant, which he refused.
“Sorry, I will not like to be part of staying the death warrant. Let CJI decide,” Justice Dave said and quoted a couplet from Manu Smriti relevant to the issue.
