Supreme Court agrees to hear Yakub Memon’s Plea against Death Warrant

Supreme Court of India has agreed to hear two petitions challenging the Death warrant issued against the Mumbai Blast Convict Yakub Memon. One is filed by Yakub Memon and one intervening application by The Centre on the Death Penalty at National Law University, Delhi. Senior Advocate Raju Ramachandran appeared for Memon and TR Andhyarujina appeared for Centre for Death Penalty. Chief Justice Dattu told the Senior Counsel that he had already assigned the Bench and it will come on Monday.The press release issued by The Centre on the Death Penalty at National Law University states as follows;"On 27th July 2015 the Supreme Court of India will hear a writ petition filed by Yakub Memon challenging the validity of the death warrant issued by the TADA Court, Mumbai on 30th April 2015. The death warrant has scheduled Yakub Memon's execution on 30th July 2015 at 7am in Nagpur Central Prison. The writ petition filed by Yakub Memon along with an Intervention Application filed by National Law University, Delhi through its Death Penalty Litigation Clinic will challenge the validity of the death warrant on the grounds that the protections available to death row prisoners during death warrant proceedings (as laid down by the Supreme Court in Shabnam v. Union of India in May 2015) were violated by the Government of Maharashtra".It was Yesterday Yakub Memon, convicted in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, approached the Supreme Court challenging the death warrant for his execution which is scheduled on July 30. According to his new plea the Death warrant is illegal because it didn’t follow proper procedure prescribed by the Supreme Court in Shatrughan Chauhan & Anr. v. Union of India & Ors.. In this Judgment Supreme Court held that Article 21 inheres a right in every prisoner till his last breath and this Court will protect that right even if the noose is being tied on the condemned prisoner’s neck. Relying on the above Judgment Supreme Court had recently quashed the death warrant issued against the Death row couples Shbnam and Saleem [Shabnam v. Union of India & Anr. and National Law University, Delhi through Death Penalty Litigation Clinic v. Union of India & Anr.It is already declared that Yakub Memon will be hanged at 7 am on 30 July in Nagpur Central Jail for his involvement in Mumbai blasts that claimed 257 lives and left 713 injured.Memon had, on Tuesday, filed a mercy petition before the Maharashtra Government Ch. Vidyasagar Rao. Despite citing five grounds for reprieve in his latest mercy plea, the BJP-led Maharashtra government, according to senior officials, is of the view that his appeal for clemency remains unsustainable. Accordingly, the government is preparing legal grounds to disprove Memon’s plea.The BJP government is consulting top legal luminaries to decide on the plea, with just eight days to the scheduled hanging.Even if his fresh mercy plea is rejected by the President, Yakub Memon cannot be hanged on July 30 in view of a Supreme Court verdict that prescribes a 14-day gap between rejection of mercy plea of a death row convict and his execution.In the landmark judgment delivered in the case of Shatrughan Chauhan & Anr. v. Union of India & Ors., the Supreme Court had observed, “It is necessary that a minimum period of 14 days be stipulated between the receipt of communication of the rejection of the mercy petition and the scheduled date of execution.”“This would allow the prisoner to prepare himself mentally for execution and have a final meeting with his family members. It is for the jail superintendent to see that the family members of the convict receive the communication rejection of mercy petition in time,” a three-judge bench headed by then CJI P. Sathasivam had said.Memon had approached the Governor; right after the Supreme Court dismissed the curative petition filed by him. You may read the LiveLaw article here.Memon has cited five main grounds for seeking fresh clemency.“The first is his mental and physical health. He has been suffering from schizophrenia since 1996, and his health has further deteriorated over the years. He suffered several breakdowns while facing trial before the TADA court due to a fragile medical condition,” said Memon’s lawyer, Shubail Farook.The second reason that the plea invokes is the ground of parity, arguing that the remaining convicts in the case — including those who planted bombs — had been handed life sentences.It further claims that Memon has already served 22 years in jail. Besides this, it makes grounds for reformative punishment, arguing that Memon had been awarded two degrees by the Indira Gandhi National Open University, and for his tutoring of fellow inmates. Lastly, Memon has also challenged the merit behind his sentencing yet again.When questioned about the validity of the second mercy petition, Memon’s lawyer Anil Gedam explained that the first had been filed by his brother Suleman Memon, while this was the first mercy petition filed by Yakub...

Supreme Court agrees to hear Yakub Memon’s Plea against Death Warrant

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