New Delhi: The apex court has referred plea of Yakub Abdul Razak Memon seeking stay of his scheduled execution on July 30 in 1993 Mumbai blasts case to a larger bench.
This was done after the two-member bench of Justices AR Dave and Kurian Joseph differed on the issue of entertaining the plea of Memon. CA by profession, Yakub is brother of infamous Tiger Memon considered one of the masterminds of the serial blasts which led to death of 257 innocent people in Mumbai.
While Justice Dave refused to stay the death warrant for July 30, Justice Kurian said capital punishment will not be executed. In the common order, the matter has been referred to the CJI whohas agreed to constitute a bench to hear the curative plea.
Justice Dave while dismissing Yakub's plea left it for the Maharashtra Governor to take a call on the clemency plea made by him.
On the other hand, Justice Kurian said curative petition of Memon needs to be heard afresh as it was dismissed without following correct procedure and rules laid down by this court. Justice Kurian said defect in deciding curative petition needs to be cured otherwise there will be clear violation of Right to Life of convict under Article 21 of the Constitution.
Earlier on Monday, the apex court sought a clarification from Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi on rules for considering the curative petition of Memon, as he has contended that the death warrant was issued against him before the apex court's decision on his petition.
Read: Yakub Memon case: SC seeks Attorney General to clarify rules of curative plea
The development came shortly after the Centre strongly opposed the mercy petition Memon as it came up for hearing in the Supreme Court. According to reports, the Centre pleaded before the apex court that all legal remedies have been exhausted by Memon, so, there are no grounds for it to hear his mercy plea.
Memon, in his petition, has said that all legal remedies have not been exhausted and he has also approached the Maharashtra Governor with a plea for mercy. He had filed the mercy plea before the Governor immediately after his curative petition was dismissed by the apex court last week.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu had on July 21 rejected Memon's plea, saying that the grounds raised by him do not fall within the principles laid down by the apex court in 2002 in deciding the curative petition, the last judicial remedy available to an aggrieved person. Memon, in his plea, had claimed he was suffering from schizophrenia since 1996 and remained behind the bars for nearly 20 years. He had sought commutation of death penalty contending that a convict cannot be awarded life term and the extreme penalty simultaneously for the same offence.
The apex court on April 9 this year had dismissed Memon's petition seeking review of his death sentence which was upheld on March 21, 2013. Memon's review petition was heard by a three-judge bench in an open court in pursuance of a Constitution bench verdict that the practice of deciding review pleas in chambers be done away with, in cases where death penalty has been awarded.
