The Supreme Court on Monday questioned the procedure adopted in handling the curative petition filed by death-row convict Yakub Memon in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case.
A bench comprising Justices A R Dave and Kurian Joseph asked Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi to clarify on Tuesday the rules related to deciding the curative petition, which is the last judicial remedy. As the hearing on Memon's plea to quash the July 30 death warrant began, the bench asked why his curative petition was not circulated among the judges who rejected the review petition.
Justice Joseph pointed out that a curative petition should be circulated not only among the four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court, but also the judges who passed the judgment complained of, if available.
Justice Joseph said neither he nor Justice J Chelameswar, despite their being part of the bench which dismissed Memon's review petition on April 9, 2015, after hearing it on merits in open court for a number of days, were included in the subsequent proceedings related to the curative petition. Justice Joseph said only Justice A R Dave, who led the review bench, was involved in deciding Memon's curative plea.
Rohatgi, however, contended that the curative petition was decided by three senior-most judges of the SC as the judgement complained was delivered by Justice P Sathasivam and B S Chauhan, who had since retired. He also contended all judicial remedies available to Memon have been exhausted with dismissal of his curative petition on July 21. Memon's mercy petitions had earlier been rejected by the president and the apex court in 2013 and 2015, respectively.
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