SC rejects Memon's plea to stall execution

In a reiteration of its earlier order passed on Wednesday, the Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a last ditch attempt by 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memon to stall his execution by 14 days.

Memon had challenged the rejection of his mercy petition by the president.

The apex court bench comprising Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Prafulla C. Pant and Justice Amitava Roy rejected Memon's plea seeking 14 days' time before the execution of his death sentence is carried out.

His mercy petition was earlier rejected by the president on Wednesday, wherein, he raised fresh grounds for clemency -- commuting his death sentence to life imprisonment.

The apex court bench, while rejecting Memon's latest plea, observed that there was nothing new in the new petition as it was a repetition of the same argument that was advanced on Wednesday.

"Same thing was there in yesterday's (Wednesday) petition. There is nothing new in the new petition," said Justice Misra in the course of the hearing.

Justice Misra headed the three-judges bench of the Supreme Court which had on Wednesday rejected Memon's plea seeking stay of his execution and quashing of the death warrant.

In an unprecedented hearing, that is first of its kind in the history of Supreme Court that sat at 3 a.m. on Thursday to hear Memon's plea, it said that "the petitioner did not raise any question when earlier, the mercy petition by his brother was rejected by the president in 2014".

Saying that Memon was given "ample opportunity" to present his case before the apex court, the bench said that he was heard for 10 days in the course of the hearing of his review petition while law mandates per half an hour hearing.

"Ample opportunity was given to him to present his case in the hearing of the review petition," the court said.

Addressing the court, senior counsel Anand Grover said that Memon should get 14 days' time after the rejection of his mercy petition, which was a matter of right given by the court in the well-known Shatrughan Chauhan case.

The court was told that Memon wanted to challenged the president's decision to reject his mercy petition in which he has raised fresh grounds including his mental health related to his schizophrenia.

Grover said that his client did not even get time to execute his will.

Contesting Memon's plea, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said that this way there would be a mercy petition every day and repeated mercy petition was bad for the system.

Contending that Memon has exhausted all the legal avenues, the attorney general said that the mercy petition should have been filed before the issuance of the death warrant.