SC rejects Yaqub Memon's plea for reviewing death sentence

New Delhi, April 9: The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a plea by 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blast mastermind Yaqub Abdul Razak Memon for a review of his death sentence. Memon had sought recall of the March 21, 2013 apex court order upholding his death sentence by a special court. Dismissing Memon’s plea, the bench of Justice Anil R. Dave, Justice J. Chelameswar and Justice Kurian Joseph said: “We have gone through the judgment sought to be reviewed and we have considered the arguments advanced on both sides.

“As requested, we have also gone through the judgment of the trial court, in order to appreciate the contention on conviction and sentence.” The court said it found “all the arguments advanced by the review petitioner have been considered in detail in the judgment which is sought to be reviewed”. “Hence, we do not find any error apparent on the face of record or any other ground so as to warrant interference in exercise of our review jurisdiction,” the court said, adding “the review petition is hence dismissed”. The court had reserved its verdict on March 25.

This was the second time that Memon’s plea for review of the verdict was dismissed. The plea was rejected earlier too, but was taken up once again as the Constitution bench by its September 2, 2014, judgment said review pleas in death sentence cases would be heard in the open court by a bench of three judges. The Constitution bench also ruled: “It will also apply where a review petition is already dismissed but the death is not executed so far. In such cases, the petitioners can apply for the reopening of their review petition within one month from the date of this judgment.”

The apex court on June 2, 2014, suspended the execution of the death sentence which was further extended on September 26, 2014, after it issued notice to the Maharashtra government on Memon’s petition for an open court hearing of his plea for review. (IANS)