The Supreme Court on Monday issued discover to the Tamil Nadu authorities on separate petitions filed by Nalini Sriharan and RP Ravichandran – each serving life sentences within the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case – looking for their untimely launch.
A bench of Justices BR Gavai and BV Nagarathna requested the state authorities to answer the petitions of each of them difficult the Madras High Court’s June 17 order rejecting their prayer for early launch.
In the HC, each had cited the May 18 order of the SC by which the apex court docket had exercised its particular powers beneath Article 142 of the Constitution to offer instructions. Premature launch of his co-convict AG Perarivalan,
The HC, nevertheless, stated it doesn’t have the particular powers that the SC has beneath Article 142, and it can not enable the aid sought with out the concurrence of the governor.
On September 9, 2018, the Tamil Nadu authorities had beneficial the untimely launch of all of the seven convicts within the case. The advice remained pending with the Governor, who finally acknowledged that “the President … is the appropriate competent authority to deal with the request”.
Nalini and Ravichandran had urged the excessive court docket to order their launch with out ready for the governor’s nod.
“Even in the case of AG Perarivalan the Apex Court has not ordered the release of the accused, holding that a direction may be passed by the High Court, to accept the motion without the signature of the Governor. May … goes to the crux of the aforesaid case to hold that without the signature of the Governor authorizing the motion, this Court cannot pass an order directing the State Government to release the accused.” HC stated.
Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on the evening of May 21, 1991 in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu by a feminine suicide bomber, recognized as Dhanu. Nalini and 25 others had been sentenced to dying by a chosen TADA court docket in 1998. In 1999, the SC acquitted 19, upheld the dying sentences of 4 – Perarivalan, Murugan, Santham and Nalini – and sentenced three others, together with Ravichandran, to life imprisonment. ,
A yr later, Nalini’s dying sentence was commuted to life imprisonment after Congress President Sonia Gandhi appealed to the state authorities. In 2014, the SC commuted the dying sentences of Perarivalan, Santham and Murugan on the grounds of delay in deciding their mercy petitions.
With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
