Staying the execution of Yakub Abdul Razak Memon, a bench of Justices J.S. Kehar and C. Nagappan said, “For that the petitioner (Memon) has been continuously in custody since 5.8.1994 and was never released on bail. He has already undergone almost 20 years of detention and executing the death sentence on him at this belated stage after a time lag of 20 years would amount to subjecting him to both life imprisonment as well as death sentence,” it said.
Senior advocate Upamanyu Hazarika, appearing for Memon, said a similar plea by a death row convict in the 2000 Red Fort attack case, Mohammed Arif, had been referred to a five-judge Constitution bench. Staying the execution of the death penalty, the bench referred to a constitutional bench Memon’s plea, filed through lawyer Shubail Farook, that seeks setting aside of a provision of the Supreme Court Rules.