There was much activity in the heart of Delhi post midnight on Thursday, as activists and a battery of lawyers moved from outside the home of Chief Justice of India HL Dattu to the Tughlak Road residence of Supreme Court judge Deepak Mishra and then finally a few km away to the stately Supreme Court building.
The petition will be heard by a three-judge bench in court no 4 of the Supreme Court after security checks. The Supreme Court has never before been opened at 2 am for a hearing.
On Wednesday evening, President Pranab Mukherjee rejected Memon’s mercy petition, that he had received earlier in the day. But with only a few hours to 7 am, the scheduled time for the execution, there was still uncertainty over whether Yakub Memon would hang on Thursday in the jail in Nagpur, Maharashtra, where he is lodged.
His lawyers and activists have cited a Supreme Court judgement in another case to argue that Memon can’t be hanged for at least 14 days after his mercy plea was rejected.
They are also set to argue 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 petition was filed late on Wednesday and Justice Dattu asked the same three-judge bench that had earlier in the day rejected Yakub Memon’s plea to stop his execution, to hear his final plea.
Memon was convicted in 2007 for his role for financing the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts. His brother, Tiger, and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, who masterminded the blasts, are missing.
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