New Delhi: A Supreme Court Deputy Registrar resigned attacking the judgement clearing the death penalty for 1993 Mumbai blast convict Yakub Memon, saying two decisions within a span of hours are instances of "judicial abdication" that should count among the "darkest hours" of the apex court, Press Trust of India reported Saturday.
Prof. Anup Surendranath, Deputy Registrar (Research), who was appointed more than a year ago on contract, resigned on July 30, the day Memon was hanged to death two hours after the court had upheld the death warrant.
NALSAR, Hyderabad, and Oxford alumini, Surendranath was the first to hold such a post in the Supreme Court after Moolchand Sharma held it around 30 years ago, appointed by then Chief Justice of India PN Bhagwati.
The Supreme Court was for the second time in its history attempting to create its own dedicated intellectual and institutional research unit with the appointment of Assistant Professor Surendranath of National Law University (NLU) Delhi, to the post of Deputy Registrar (Research) by the then CJI R M Lodha.
"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 n July 30.
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.
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