President Pranab Mukherjee has rejected Yakub Memon's mercy plea. The rejection of mercy plea has cleared deck for Yakub's hanging which is scheduled to be on July 30. The decision came after Mukherjee held consultations first with Home Minister Rajnath Singh who was later joined by Home Secretary L C Goyal and Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar. The confabulations lasted over two hours after which the President took the decision to reject the petition that was filed by Memon in a last-ditch attempt to escape gallows.

Meanwhile, late on Wednesday night, Yakub's lawyers filed a fresh petition in Supreme Court, arguing that the President could not decide on the mercy plea overnight. It also argued that between the rejection of mercy petition and execution, there should be a 14-day gap. If accepted, a judge will hear the petition at his home.



Earler, a three-judge Supreme Court bench on Wednesday rejected the petition of Yakub Abdul Razak Memon, the sole death row convict in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case. In another setback for the 53-year-old convict on death row, Maharashtra Governor CV Rao has also rejected his mercy plea, hours before he is scheduled to hang in a Nagpur jail on Thursday morning, also Memon's 54th birthday.

Dismissing Memon's curative petition, the apex court said there was no procedural lapse in the formation of the curative bench which had earlier this month rejected his appeal. Memon had argued that the death warrant against him was issued even before the Supreme Court could hear his curative petition. Read: Yakub Memon to be hanged by same man who executed Kasab

President Pranab Mukherjee, who earlier on Wednesday received a mercy plea from Memon seeking commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment, had sent the file to the Home Ministry, seeking the government's advice on the issue. This was the first time Memon - found guilty and sentenced to death for his role in the March 12, 1993 Mumbai serial blasts - has made a direct plea to the President. Earlier, a similar appeal was made by his family on his behalf which was rejected in April 2014.

What happened in Supreme Court today?



"The issuance of death warrant cannot be faulted with," said the apex court bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra, while rejecting Memon's plea. Pronouncing the order, Justice Misra said, "We don't find any legal fallacy with the issuance of death warrant by the TADA court on April 30."



The court order came after a day-long hearing on the petition by Memon and also a reference by two judge-bench on the appropriateness of another bench that had heard Memon's curative petition and rejected it on July 21, 2015. This reference was made following a split verdict between Justice Anil R Dave and Justice Kurien Joseph on Tuesday. From the Archives: Yakub Memon arrest, revelations reconfirm active role played by Pakistan in Bombay blasts case



Dealing with the reference, the court said that the curative petition that "was decided by the three senior-most judges cannot be regarded as void or inappropriate" in context of the principle that was laid down by this court in an earlier judgement famously known as Hurra case. "Thus, we disagree with the views expressed by Justice Joseph at this juncture," the court said, holding that "dismissal of curative petition by the three seniormost judges has to be regarded to be correct and not vitiated by any procedural irregularity".

Without saying anything on the second mercy petition moved by Memon before the Maharashtra Governor after the rejection of his curative petition by the apex court on July 21, the court brought an end to the legal battle being waged by Memon challenging his death sentence.

Curtains down on two-decade old case

Memon and 11 others were slapped with the death penalty by the special TADA court in July 2007 for the 1993 bomb blasts in which 257 people were killed and 712 were injured. Memon, who has been in prison for more than two decades in the 1993 serial blasts case which killed 257 people, is scheduled to hang at 7 am on Thursday in the Nagpur Central jail where a heavy security arrangement has been made following the Supreme Court verdict.

Memon's wife, Rahin, has left for Nagpur jail where she hopes to meet him one last time before his execution. "I have full faith in the judiciary, I have full faith in the Almighty," Yakub's brother Suleman said after the Supreme Court verdict.

