In an unexpected twist to Yakub Memon’s last-ditch fight against his execution, scheduled for July 30, a Supreme Court judge on Monday raised doubts about the procedure followed by the court while hearing the curative petition filed by the lone death row convict in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case.
The curative petition, a rare remedy, is the last of a series of judicial processes made available to a condemned man in the Supreme Court. Once his original appeal against the death penalty is dismissed, a death row convict can file a review petition and then a curative petition.
The two-hour hearing started with Justice Kurian Joseph, on the Bench with Justice Anil R. Dave, asking the Maharashtra government, led by Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi, whether it did not find anything missing in the way the curative petition was dealt with.
Though the hearing was on Yakub’s petition challenging the “undue haste” being shown by the State government to execute him, Justice Joseph’s queries became the central focus. Justice Joseph said a curative petition should be circulated not only among the three senior-most judges of the Supreme Court but also among the judges “who passed the judgment complained of, if available.” However, he pointed out that neither he nor Justice J. Chelameswar, despite being part of the Bench that dismissed Yakub’s review petition on April 9, 2015, after hearing it on merits in open court for a considerable number of days, were included in the subsequent curative process.
‘Curative plea must also be circulated among those who passed the verdict’
Justice Kurian Joseph’s queries on the curative process of Yakub Memon’s plea against his death sentence became the central focus of Monday’s hearing.
The judge drew the court’s attention to Order 48 in Part 4 of the Supreme Court Rules, 2013, dealing with the procedure for hearing ‘curative petitions.’
Justice Joseph said a curative petition should be circulated not only among the three senior-most judges of the Supreme Court but also among the judges “who passed the judgment .” However, he pointed out that neither he nor Justice J. Chelameswar, despite being part of the Bench that dismissed Yakub’s review petition on April 9, 2015, after hearing it on merits in open court for a considerable number of days, were included in the subsequent curative process.
Justice Joseph said only Justice Anil R. Dave, who led the Review Bench, was included in the Bench that dealt with the curative plea.
On July 22, 2015, the Curative Bench, of Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu and Justices T.S. Thakur and Dave, dismissed Yakub’s plea.
Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi countered that there was no need to include Justice Joseph or Justice Chelameswar in the curative process. He said curative petitions challenged the original judgment of confirmation of the death penalty, and not the review of the original judgment.
“Since Justice P. Sathasivam and B.S. Chauhan who delivered the original judgment in 2013 had retired, the judges who authored the judgment complained of as under Order 48 were not available,” he reasoned.
Hanging in the balance
A little over 20 years after 13 co-ordinated blasts rocked Mumbai, killing 257 and injuring over 700, the lone convict on death, Yakub Abdul Razak Memon, could be hanged on July 30 if the SC rejects his curative petition against death sentence.
Here's a snapshot of the debates surrounding Yakub's case and the ethics of the death penalty and its finality.>From messenger to mastermind
Yakub Memon would pay for his brother's sins and become the only man to be sentenced to death in the Mumbai blasts case.
>Trial and error
Trial courts have been handing out death sentences at the rate of ten a month for the last 15 years.
>Why the death penalty must end:
The world is moving away from using the death penalty. The European Union has made "abolition of death penalty" a prerequisite for membership: says Kanimozhi
Timeline
>A case for mercy
Hanging Yakub Memon will be cruel and inhuman, for more than one reason
>From 'best' CA to death row detenu
Yakub was once named the best chartered accountant by the Memon community
>Justice or vengeance?
Procedure followed to obtain death warrant for Yakub Memon suffers from serious constitutional flaws
>Yakub Memon and the story of the death penalty
This will be India's third execution since it lifted its informal 8-year moratorium
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