At stroke of dawn, SC confirmed Yakub hanging

The Supreme Court on Thursday granted a historic early morning hearing to 1993 Mumbai blast convict Yakub Memon and rejected his last-ditch attempt to stay the scheduled 7 am hanging for 14 days.

Following the late-night proceedings that lasted 90 minutes, a rarity in the apex court’s history, a three-judge bench of Justices Dipak Misra, P C Pant and Amitava Roy dismissed the plea, saying that it would be “travesty of justice” to stay the execution.

The court's order was pronounced amid dramatic developments and in the presence of Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, Memon's counsel and hordes of mediapersons. It sealed Memon’s fate with the authorities at Nagpur Central Jail carrying out his execution on his 54th birthday on Thursday.

The bench completed dictating the order at 4.50 am in Court No. 4 in the SC premises. The judges said the convict had ample opportunity to exercise his legal rights and there was abundance of petitions on his behalf.

Yakub’s fighting fate
Hectic action started around 10 pm on Wednesday when a group of lawyers led by senior advocate Anand Grover and Prashant Bhushan rushed to Chief Justice of India (CJI) H L Dattu's residence here for suspending Memon's hanging, which looked imminent after rejection of his mercy petition by President Pranab Mukherjee. Memon, brother of fugitive Tiger Memon, was found to be the “driving spirit” behind the March 12, 1993 blasts in Mumbai that killed 257 people and left several others injured.

The move was precipitated as three-judge bench had earlier on Wednesday rejected Memon's counsel plea questioning legality of the death warrant as well as the procedural lapse in deciding curative petition.

In view of urgent hearing sought by Memon's counsel, the CJI preferred to set up the bench, comprising the same three judges who passed the order on Wednesday.

During the hearing, Grover urged the court to grant 14 days time after the rejection of his mercy petition, as enunciated in the Shatrughan Chauhan verdict.

The counsel also contended that Memon sought to challenge rejection of his mercy petition by th president on Wednesday as his plea for poor mental health was not taken into consideration. Besides, they said Memon had not even got the time to execute his will.

Rohatgi said the convict had been intimated about his death warrant 17 days in advance and the president had earlier also in rejected his mercy plea. He also submitted that Memon had exhausted all the legal avenues and there has to be an end to the process.

Coming out of the courtroom, Grover was visibly upset. “This is tragic mistake and a wrong decision,” Grover said. Rohatgi, on his part, maintained his composure. “The process has come to an end, there is no question of victory,” he said.