Yakub Memon moves Supreme Court against the judgement of his execution

New Delhi: Yakub Memon, facing the gallows in the Mumbai blast cases, has moved the Supreme Court seeking stay on his execution scheduled for July 30, his birthday. If the court entertains the petition, there is an imminent possibility of staying the execution.  

In a fresh writ petition, he has challenged the death warrant issued against him contending that while issuing the warrant the trial court had not followed the due procedure. He said as a death row convict he was entitled to exhaust all the legal remedies but the trial court had fixed the date of execution even before his remedies were exhausted.

Yakub pointed out that the date of execution was fixed for July 30 even as his curative petition was pending adjudication in the apex court. Further he said he had also given a fresh mercy petition to the Maharashtra Governor and the date of execution was filed even before the Governor could act on it.

Quoting a recent judgment, he said that a mandatory period oft 30 days must be given to the convicts after the pronouncement of the final verdict. In that case the apex court had held “We find that the death warrant was signed by the sessions judge in haste without waiting for the convicts to exhaust the available legal remedies”.

The court had said “Right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution does not end with the confirmation of the death sentence. The basis to the right to dignity also extends to the death row convicts. Therefore, the sentence of death has to be executed with total dignity. “Among the mandatory guidelines are that the death-row convicts have the right to meet their family members. The guidelines are intended to make the execution least painful. In his petition Yakub prayed for quashing the death warrant and an interim stay of his execution.”

Earlier on Wednesday, CPM insisted that the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts convict Yakub Memon’s execution will not serve the interests of justice, and demanded that his mercy petition be accepted saying that he chose to surrender and cooperate with the authorities.

Memon, whose curative petition was dismissed by the Supreme Court on Tuesday, has submitted a mercy petition for the Maharashtra Governor, in the last-ditch effort to prevent execution of his death sentence on July 30. Reacting to the Supreme Court’s decision, CPM said that unlike the main explosion culprits, Memon had chosen to surrender before Indian authorities and stand trial.