Amid debate over whether Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memon should be hanged, late A P J Abdul Kalam had supported abolition of capital punishment saying that as President of India, he felt pain in deciding on such cases as most of them had "social and economic bias".


Kalam had recently responded to a Law Commission consultation paper on capital punishment and was one of the few people who had supported abolition of death sentence. Most


of the over 400 respondents had supported continuing with the provision of death penalty. In his response to the paper, Kalam had said capital punishment was one of the most difficult tasks for him as President.


A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court today delivered a split verdict on a plea by Yakub Abdul Razak Memon, the lone death convict in 1993 Mumbai blasts case, seeking stay of his scheduled execution on July 30 and referred the matter to the Chief Justice to take call on it.