Supreme Court turns down Yakub Memon’s curative plea

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has rejected a lastminute plea for judicial intervention to stop the proposed execution of a mastermind of the 1993 Mumbai blasts case, Yakub Memon, in a Nagpur jail on July 30.

The execution is scheduled for seven in the morning but later in the day, Memon filed a mercy petition with the Maharashtra governor. His family has already been informed of the move as mandated by top court guidelines that were issued after Mohamad Afzal Guru’s execution was conducted in secret in 2013.

A TADA (Terrorist and Disruptive Activities) court had issued the warrant for Memon’s execution on April 29 after the top court rejected his earlier plea for review of the judgement, which had held him guilty of masterminding the blasts.

He had then moved a curative petition — filed to ensure that there is no miscarriage of justice — in the top court to try and stall the hanging. This was rejected in a brief order passed by a three-judge bench comprising chief justice of India HL Dattu and justices TS Thakur and Anil R Dave.

The court said his curative petition did not meet requirements. These include violation of the principles of natural justice if he was not party to a case but was affected by the order, not being heard in a case or a failure on the judge’s part to disclose any conflict of interest.