In an unexpected twist to Yakub Memon’s last-ditch brings little hope to memon, with two judges taking diametrically opposite views while hearing petition seeking stay of his execution scheduled on July 30.
Supreme Court judge on Monday raised doubts about the procedure followed by the court while hearing the curative petition filed by the lone death row convict in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case.
The two-hour hearing started with Justice Kurian Joseph, on the Bench with Justice Anil R. Dave. Justice Dave was of the opinion that there was nothing more to decide in Yakub’s petition after dismissal of his curative petition. The matter ends there.”
But Justice Joseph picked holes in the dismissal of the curative petition. Justice Joseph said dismissal of his last-gasp plea appeared irregular and hence, the judicial process was not yet complete.
Justices A R Dave and Kurian Joseph needed ironing out by elaborate arguments on behalf of Yakub and the government. The court decided to hear it further on Tuesday.
Though the hearing was on Yakub’s petition challenging the “undue haste” being shown by the State government to execute him, Justice Joseph’s queries became the central focus.
Justice Joseph said a curative petition should be circulated not only among the three senior-most judges of the Supreme Court but also among the judges “who passed the judgment complained of, if available.”
However, he pointed out that neither he nor Justice J. Chelameswar, despite being part of the Bench that dismissed Yakub’s review petition on April 9, 2015, after hearing it on merits in open court for a considerable number of days, were included in the subsequent curative process.
Yakub has raised two principal grounds for stay of his death warrants. One, the Maharashtra government got the death warrants issued from the designated TADA court when his curative petition was still pending in the Supreme Court. Second, his mercy petition, moved before the Maharashtra governor a day after the SC dismissed his curative petition, is still pending.
Yakub’s counsel Raju Ramachandran canvassed these points to argue that his client could not be executed on Thursday as he was yet to exhaust his constitutionally and legally guaranteed remedies.