Yakub Memon Hanged: Indians divided, Supreme Court official resigns

New Delhi, Aug 2: Yakub Memon's execution divided Indians. While some believe that justice finally has been delivered to the victims of 1993 serial blasts, some believe that Yakub was innocent.

Igniting the debate and controversy over Yakub's hanging, Prof Anup Surendranath, Deputy Registrar of the Supreme Court, resigned on July 30, the day when Yakub was hanged in Nagpur Central Jail.

[SP leader seeks RS nomination for Memon's widow, sacked]

Prof Arup criticised death penalty awarded to Yakub saying that the two decisions within a span of hours are instances of "judicial abdication" that should count among the "darkest hours" of the apex court.

Prof Arup, Deputy Registrar (Research), was appointed more than a year ago on contract.

[Last moment decoded: Know what Yakub Memon told his daughter just before hanging]

His resignation, which has come in the midst of a raging debate over death penalty and whether it should be used as a form of the State avenging a crime, has been accepted and he has been relieved, court sources said. There are nearly 20 deputy registrars, a few of whom have been inducted from outside judiciary.

Prof Arup was quoted as saying, "It would be silly and naive to see the events of the last 24 hours at the Supreme Court as some triumph of the rule of law."

"The two orders at 4 pm on 29th July and 5 am on 30th July (and the reasoning adopted therein) are instances of judicial abdication that must count amongst the darkest hours for the Supreme Court of India," Surendranath had remarked on July 30.

Surendranath is also a faculty member of National Law University, Delhi, and Director of Death Penalty Research Project. He was also associated with the filing of the petition for stay of Memon's death warrant.

"I have been contemplating this for a while now for a variety of reasons, but what was played out this week at the Supreme Court was the proverbial final nail - I have resigned from my post at the Supreme Court to focus on death penalty work at the University," wrote Prof Arup while speaking about his resignation on a social networking site.

He also added, "It is in many ways liberating to regain the freedom to write whatever I want and I hope to make full use of that in the next few days to discuss the events that transpired at the Supreme Court this week."

OneIndia News
(With agency inputs)