The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the pleas of three convicts in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case seeking an extension of the deadline to surrender to the prison authorities till their clemency petition is decided by the President.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir rejected the pleas of Zaibunnisa Anwar Kazi (70), Issaq Mohammed Hajwane (76) and Shariff Abdul Gafoor Parker (88), alias Dadabhai, saying an extension cannot be given to convicts on the grounds that their clemency plea is pending before the President.
In its judgment, the Supreme Court had upheld the TADA court’s verdict of a five-year jail term to Kazi, who is suffering from cancer.
It had enhanced to life imprisonment the five-year jail term awarded to Hajwane by the trial court. He had spent five years in prison during the trial in the case. The life sentence awarded by the TADA court to Parker was also upheld. He has already served over 14 years in jail.
Former Supreme Court judge and Press Council of India chief Markandey Katju had made a representation to the President on behalf of Kazi on March 18 and on behalf of the other two on April 10. The writ petitions filed by the three had pleaded that they should not be asked to surrender till the representation made by Katju on their behalf was decided by the President.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Tuesday also dismissed the pleas by five convicts of the case seeking review of its verdict, saying there was no merit in them. “We have carefully gone through the review petitions and the connected papers. We find no merit in the review petitions and the same are accordingly dismissed,” a bench of Justices P. Sathasivam and B.S. Chauhan said.
The review petition was filed by Zaibunnisa Anwar Kazi, Kersi Bapuji Adajania, Yusuf Khan, alias Kayum Kasam Khan, Ranjit Kumar Singh and Altaf Ali Sayed, whose conviction was earlier upheld by the apex court.