Late in the night, lawyers for Memon changed strategy and rushed to the
residence Chief Justice of India H L Dattu and petitioned him for an
urgent hearing to stay the hanging on the ground that 14 days time should
be given to death row convict to enable him challenge the rejection and
for other purposes.
After consultations, the CJI constituted the same three-judge bench
that had earlier decided on the death warrant issue to go into the late
night plea.
In a late night development a three-member bench of Supreme Court sat to
hear last ditch petition on behalf of Yakub Memon at 2 AM. The bench
comprising Justices Dipak Misra, Prafulla Chandra Pant and Amitava Roy,
which had upheld the death warrant against the 1993 Mumbai blasts convict,
heard the petition at the Supreme Court.
In the fresh plea, lawyers for Memon are likely to argue that the
person facing the gallows should be given at least 14 days time after the
rejection of his mercy petition as the apex court’s guidelines. Yakub
Memon’s lawyer Anand Grover argued that a death row convict is entitled to
14 days reprieve after rejection of mercy plea for various purposes. Anand
Grover said Memon hds right to challenge rejection of mercy plea.
Earlier on Wednesday, President Pranab Mukherjee and Maharashtra
Governor Vidyasagar Rao had rejected the mercy petitions filed by Memon.
Lawyer also argued that nearest legal aid centre has to be
informed about rejection but cannot be done because it was in
the night. Lawyer also questioned how the President rejected the
fresh mercy plea in a short time. Other argument put forward was that the
convict had right to receive copy of rejection of mercy plea.
Opposing stay on hanging, AG Mukul Rohatgi said that the (fresh plea of
Memon) was abusing the system. He added that death warrant upheld just 10 hours
ago by three judges cannot be quashed.
Lawyer of Yakub Memon replied to this by saying that they were hell bent on
hanging Memon this morning. AG’s argument to this was that,
“The gameplan is to prolong the stay in jail for years to get the death
sentence commuted. Memon’s petition is not maintainable.”
The Supreme Court today then dismissed plea for stay of execution put by
Memon’s lawyers. The court observed that on the first glance
the submissions made on behalf of Memon looked attractive but
on finer consideration the case of the convict does not carry much
weight.
Court added that,
“Giving 14 days’ time to Memon after rejection of mercy plea by
President would be travesty of justice. Ample opportunity was granted to the
convict after the rejection of the first mercy petition. Stay of death
warrant could be a travesty of justice. Rejection of first mercy petition by
President could have been assailed before this court.”
Reacting to the Court order AG said that,
“It is the end of legal process and not a question of victory.”
Memon’s lawyer Anand Grover said SC order is a tragic mistake and a
wrong decision.
Justice Dipak Misra, heading a three-judge bench, in an order in Court
Room 4 which was opened for an unprecedented 90-minute hearing that
started at 3.20 AM and ended a little before dawn passed the order of
dismissing the plea.
The court’s decision brought the curtain down on the last ditch
attempts by Yakob Memon’s lawyers to stop the execution scheduled at 7 AM
at Nagpur Central Jail.
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