The Supreme Court Registry on Sunday took serious objection to news item in electronic and print media that Deputy Registrar (Research) Dr. Anup Surendranath >quit in protest over the 1993 Mumbai blasts case death row convict Yakub Memon case and the court's orders against stay of his execution.
A press note issued on the Supreme Court's official website said the news item was “distorted”, “incorrect” and “highly misleading”.
The note signed by the Secretary General of the Supreme Court, V.S.R. Avadhani, has attached Mr. Surendranath's resignation letter dated July 31, 2015 with it. It said the correct facts have to be published in order to “dispel any misgivings due to the distorted new item.”
The note said Mr. Surendranath, “a faculty working on a short-term assignment on deputation in Supreme Court as Deputy Registrar (Research) has been repatriated to his parent institution w.e.f 31.7.2015 on his own request as he wanted to pursue his interests in research projects he is involved in.”
News items published in the media quoted the Facebook posts of Mr. Surendranath about the circumstances of his resignation.
In his Facebook post on August 1, Mr. Surendranath said, “I have been contemplating this for a while now for a variety of reasons, but what was played out this week at the Supreme Court was the proverbial final nail — I have resigned from my post at the Supreme Court to focus on death penalty work at the University. It is in many ways liberating to regain the freedom to write whatever I want and I hope to make full use of that in the next few days to discuss the events that transpired at the Supreme Court this week.”
Commenting on the execution, his July 30 Facebook post said, “It would be silly and naive to see the events of the last 24 hours at the Supreme Court as some triumph of the rule of law — the two orders at 4 p.m. on 29th July and 5am on 30th July (and the reasoning adopted therein) are instances of judicial abdication that must count amongst the darkest hours for the Supreme Court of India.”
Mr. Surendranath is the Director of the Death Penalty Litigation Clinic run by the varsity. The Clinic was represented by senior advocate T.R. Andhyarujina in the Supreme Court in the Memon case. It had argued for stay in execution on July 30 as there were procedural violations in the death warrant issued by the TADA Court in Mumbai on April 30.
