Not Just Karnataka: Tweeple Recall SC’s Midnight Session for Yakub

File photo of the Supreme Court. 

(Photo: The Quint)

In an extremely rare event, the Supreme Court on Thursday, 17 May, made a post-midnight decision, where it refused to stay Bharatiya Janata Party-fielded B S Yeddyurappa's swearing-in as the new Karnataka chief minister.

However, this wasn’t the first time that the court had opened its doors to matters of jurisdiction post-midnight. In 2015, a few hours before Yakub Memon, an accused in the 1993 Mumbai blasts was to be hanged, his lawyers had approached the court around 2 am, in a final attempt to try and save him from the execution.

As reported by India Today, the Supreme Court registry had rushed to the residence of the then Chief Justice of India and a midnight hearing was conducted in court number 4.

Following the court’s action on Thursday midnight, twitterati embarked on a discussion regarding its post-midnight hearing on the day Memon was hanged, comparing the circumstances under which the apex court opened its doors at such odd hours. 

According to the report, the 90-minute hearing, which saw Memon’s lawyers challenging the decision to hang him, started at 3:20 am and ended at 4:50 am.

Although the court eventually turned down the lawyers’ plea to save Memon, the fact that it had willingly agreed to hear it in the first place, at the unusual time post-midnight, was greatly lauded as a kind of “victory of justice”.

Another such case was in 2014, when lawyers of Surinder Koli, who was handed the death sentence for the infamous Nithari killings, moved the Supreme Court in the final hours before his hanging in Meerut.

However, many questioned the urgency of the current matter.

While many praised the Indian judiciary’s willingness to hold a hearing regarding a matter of “justice” in the nocturnal hours post-midnight, several also claimed that it is seems like a bit of a favour to the Congress party.

(With inputs from India Today)

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