Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi and senior advocate T R Andhyarujina today had heated exchanges at the fag end of the hearing on the plea of Yakub Abdul Razak Memon when the former questioned the latter's locus to argue the case, calling the convict a "traitor".
"You have no right to intervene," the Attorney General said when Andhyarujina started advancing rejoinder arguments in favour of Memon's plea after the lawyer for the convict had finished the submissions.
Reacting to this, Andhyarujina said "the mercy plea is not a matter of grace. It is rather constitutional right of the convict" and Memon "cannot be hanged tomorrow at 7:00 AM" without him exhausting all remedies.
"His mercy petition (before Maharashtra Governor) is still pending... How can that be? He cannot be hanged with his mercy plea still pending," the usually calm senior lawyer said.
Rohatgi shot back "it is not the matter of adjudication here."
Andhyarujina then referred to the fundamental rights of the condemned convict and said his life was "hanging through a thread" and his efforts to win life till the last breath should not be mocked.
"What about the rights of the 257 persons (who died in blasts) and several hundreds who got injured," the AG asked and called Memon a "traitor" saying "the Supreme Court says so in its judgement".
