The Supreme Court said state government (Tamil Nadu government) has no unilateral power to decide remission for convicts of heinous crimes without the consultation with the Centre, in case where the matter has been investigated by a central agency.
Advertisement
The judgment is a setback to J Jayalalithaa’s government in Tamil Nadu which had in February 2014 chose to release all the seven convicts in the case, a day after the top court commuted death sentence into life term for three convicts owing to delay in deciding their mercy petitions by the Centre.
A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu, who would be demitting office on Wednesday, authoritatively dealt with questions raised by the smaller bench in the sensational case.
The apex court held that Centre will have primacy in granting remission to convicts in cases registered under central law and probed by central agencies like CBI.
Interestingly, the Court has not pronounced on the legality of the order of the Tamil Nadu government releasing the seven convicts.
The Union’s submission that no remission can be granted by the state if accepted would have horrendous consequences.
He said the courts should not take away the hope remission offers a life convict who has served 14 years of his life sentence. The other four are also undergoing life sentence for their role in Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination on 21 May, 1991 in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu. Four others, including Murugan’s wife Nalini Sriharan, Robert Pious, Jayakumar and Ravichandran are serving life terms.
Advertisement
The Tamil Nadu government had in August argued that a convict in Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination, Gopal Vinayakram Godse, had been released in 1964 after being sentenced to a life term. It had also asserted that the killers of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi did nor deserve any mercy as the assassination was the result of a conspiracy involving foreign nationals.
