"It can stay awake till midnight to hear the Yakub Memon case and it can extend the hearing of the Ram Janmabhoomi title case for three months, while crores of Indians wait for it."
The Supreme Court has referred to a larger bench the plea of Yakub Abdul Razak Memon seeking a stay of his scheduled execution on July 30 in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case.
'Leave B Raman aside, 50 eminent personalities have written about commuting his death sentence. Even a retired judge of the Supreme Court has written about it. Nobody is talking about it.'
Katju said after carefully studying the judgment of the court he finds that the evidence on which Memon has been found guilty is "very weak".
Memon, 53, was found guilty of conspiracy in 2007 for the serial blasts that killed over 250 people.
The family had planned to call on Yakub Memon early this month and had already booked the train tickets on July 4.
A look at who's saying what about 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memon's hanging on Thursday morning at the Nagpur Central Jail:
The Supreme Court will resume the hearing of 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts convict Yakub Memon's mercy petition on Tuesday morning.
The curative petition and other legal remedies still available to Yakub Memon are part of his rights as a prisoner condemned to death. Does the Maharashtra government want to deprive him of these rights, asks Jyoti Punwani.
The home ministry has recommended to the President that the mercy petition of Yakub Abdul Razak Memon, a convict in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, be rejected.
The mercy plea of Yakub Abdul Razak Memon, a death-row convict in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, has been rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee.
'The Supreme Court has now demonstrated its capacity to right its own wrongs, and to place the rule of law above all else.'
Two decisions within a span of hours are instances of "judicial abdication" that should count among the "darkest hours" of the apex court, Prof. Anup Surendranath said.
The Maharashtra authorities would go ahead with hanging of Yakub Memon, the sole death row convict of 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, on July 30 as scheduled, highly placed sources in Mumbai said on Thursday.
Yakub Memon, a convict in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts, is likely to be executed on July 30 if the Supreme Court turns down his mercy plea. It will be the first execution in the serial blasts, which left over 250 dead.
Rahin Memon begged that her husband be allowed to serve a life sentence and not be executed as he had willingly surrendered.
'There was some intelligence that he'll be killed before the whole process -- after sessions court, high court, Supreme Court, mercy petition before the governor, the President -- was completed; they (Pakistani intelligence agencies) will somehow manage to kill him.'
The Supreme Court will continue its hearing on the mercy plea of 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Abdul Razak Memon on Tuesday.
A little over 22 years after 12 coordinated blasts rocked Mumbai, killing 257 people and injuring over 700, the lone convict on death row in the case -- Yakub Abdul Razak Memon -- was hanged after the Supreme Court on Thursday morning rejected his petition seeking stay of execution
Memon, in his petition said that all legal remedies have not been exhausted and he has also approached the Maharashtra governor with a plea for mercy.
Yakub Memon, the only convict in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case whose death sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court recently , has been awarded a master's degree in English literature by the Indira Gandhi National Open University. Memon is currently lodged in the Central Prison in Nagpur. Seven other convicts, who are serving life-terms, were awarded IGNOU degrees.
Politicians, actors and eminent jurists have written a petition to the President to waive off the 1993 Mumbai blasts convict's execution, saying it 'would degrade us all'.
The Supreme Court's refusal to stay execution of Yakub Memon on Wednesday drew sharp reactions from legal experts.
Family members of victims of 1993 Mumbai blasts submit mass petition to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fanavis
Yakub Abdul Razak Memon, brother of absconding accused Tiger Memon, is the sole convict who was awarded death sentence by the Supreme Court in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case that had claimed 257 lives and left 713 injured.
Salman Khan in defence of Yakub Memon said the wrong man is being punished for the crimes.
After spending more that 20 years in prison, Yakub Memon was hanged early on Thursday morning for his role the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts. Here's what happed at the Nagpur Central jail in the last rather tense 24 hours
The various theories and statements about the culpability/innocence of 1993 blasts accused Yakub Memon present him with a Rashomon act, says Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
'I got to know the men accused of the blasts regularly meeting them in court and jail. Some of them, like Dutt, are back in jail. Others, like Mohammed Jindran, a quiet and well spoken middle class man, were killed. And now of course Yakub is ready to be hanged. The first in the case to do so,' says Aakar Patel.
Barring any last-minute reprieve, Yakub Memon, the lone death row convict in the March 12, 1993 Mumbai blasts case, will be hanged at 7 am on Thursday morning.
"Let there be status quo as regards the subject premises for a period of 10 days. List after one week," the bench said.
Yakub Memon, who was convicted for helping finance the serial blasts in Mumbai in 1993 in which 257 people were killed, was hanged at the Nagpur Central Jail on Thursday morning shortly before 7am.
'B Raman knew that Yakub Memon should not be given the capital punishment but at the same time he harboured too much anger against Dawood Ibrahim and 'Tiger' Memon, and wanted to see that they do not stand to gain in the legal process in any manner whatsoever.'
Stoking a controversy, Congress leader Digvijay Singh on said the credibility of government and judiciary was at stake after the "urgency" shown in Yakub Memon's case while his party MP Shashi Tharoor questioned the efficacy of death sentence in serving as a deterrent.
In his petition to the Supreme Court, Yakub had stated that he had been in jail for more than 20 years, which is more than the jail term awarded for life imprisonment, which is 14 years.
'Raman knew everything and was privy to all the details of Yakub's movements'
A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha, while granting them the relief took note of the time they have already served and the unlikelihood of their appeals being taken up for disposal anytime soon.
Article 72 of the Constitution empowers the president to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of anyone convicted of any offence.
Lashing out at those who sought leniency for Yakub Memon, the Shiv Sena on Friday demanded they should be "tried for being enemies of the country" and also asked the government to ensure that the 1993 serial blasts convict does not become a martyr in the eyes of people.
"I have already assigned the bench. The file had come to me. It will come up on Monday," said Chief Justice of India H L Dattu.
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