SC Deputy Registrar resigns over judgement on Yakub Memon

 

"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 PM on July 29 and 5 AM on July 30 (and the reasoning adopted therein) are instances of judicial abdication that must count amongst the darkest hours for the Supreme Court of India," Surendranath  had reportedly 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," he wrote while announcing his resignation on social networking site.

"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," he added.

For the first time in India's legal history the Supreme Court was opened for judges at 3 am on Thursday to hear the final plea against the execution of Yakub Memon for his role in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case.

After about 90 minutes, the judges rejected Memon's appeal to stop his execution. He was hanged in Nagpur central jail a little before 7 am.

The petition was heard by a three-judge bench in court number 4 of the Supreme Court .  The Supreme Court had never before been opened at 3 am for a hearing. 
Memon's lawyers cited a Supreme Court judgement in another case to argue that he can't be hanged for at least 14 days after his mercy plea was rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday.
 
They also argued that a Maharashtra prison manual, which says that there must be a seven-day gap between the rejection of a mercy petition and execution, has not been followed.

The Supreme Court rejected these arguments, saying enough opportunities  had been given to Memon to file his petition after his mercy plea was first rejected.