NEW DELHI: Yakub Memon, who was given death sentence for his involvement in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, on Thursday moved the Supreme Court seeking stay of execution of his death sentence which was scheduled for July 30.
He filed the petition on the ground that all legal remedies have not been exhausted.
Yakub, in his petition said a lower court’s death warrant is illegal as all the legal remedies available to him under the law have not been exhausted and that he has also approached the Maharastra Governor with a plea for mercy.
He had filed the mercy plea before the Governor immediately after his curative petition was dismissed by the apex court on Tuesday.
Yakub’s lawyer told the apex court that the warrant issued by the trial court did not follow procedure and guidelines, while citing a case in May when the death warrants of an Uttar Pradesh couple were cancelled.
His petition says a death warrant was issued against him even before he could exhaust his last legal remedy a curative petition which was dismissed two days ago on July 21.
The Supreme Court in the UP case had said that such warrants cannot be issued unless the convict has exhausted all legal options.
A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India H L Dattu had on July 21 rejected Yakub’s plea saying that the grounds raised by him does not fall within the principles laid down by the apex court in 2002 in deciding the curative petition, the last judicial remedy available to an aggrieved person.
Yakub, in his plea, had claimed that he was suffering from schizophrenia since 1996 and remained behind the bars for nearly 20 years. He had sought commutation of death penalty contending that a convict cannot be awarded life term and the extreme penalty simultaneously for the same offence.