Unprecedented pre-dawn hearing ends with Yakub Memon's life on birthday

NEW DELHI: The last ditch attempt by Yakub Memon's lawyers to delay the inevitable started a sequence of high-voltage midnight drama, starting from the Supreme Court registry travelling to residence of Chief Justice of India and attaining finality after a pre-dawn 90-minute hearing at Court no.4 that sealed his fate on his 53rd birthday.

It was unprecedented for the apex court since Independence that the locks of temple of justice were opened at around 2 AM for a crucial hearing by a bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra, which started at 3.20 AM and ended at 4.50 AM today.

As the news unfolded at 11.10 PM last night that lawyers of Memon, the lone death row convict in the 1993 Mumbai blasts, have approached the Chief Justice seeking stay on his execution for 14 days, crowd started splurging outside the official residence of the CJI at 5, Krishna Menon Marg.

A battery of lawyers led by senior counsel Anand Grover, advocates Vrinda Grover, Prashant Bhushan and Yug Chaudhary, were seen standing outside the CJI's residence, with a number of scribes also waiting to get information.

As the crowd swelled, Delhi Police also swung into action, stepping up security in no time with barricades being put up to restrict vehicular movement on the road.

When the clock struck 1.05 AM, suddenly the lawyers in batches quietly started leaving the spot and rushing to the residence of Justice Dipak Misra at 10, Tughlak Road, anticipating that the hearing on Memon's plea would take place there.

Some mediapersons also followed the lawyers and reached Justice Misra's residence, where the security had already been beefed up and the entire road was closed for vehicular movement.