23.2.14

SC stays release of Rajiv killers

The Supreme Court restrained the J Jayalalithaa government from remitting the life terms of Rajiv Gandhi assassination convicts Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan and releasing them while agreeing to hear the Centre’s application claiming that it alone had the powers to remit jail terms of the convicts in this case.
A bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam and Justices Ranjan Gogoi and N V Ramana issued a notice to the Tamil Nadu government and asked it to maintain status quo on the three convicts till March 6.
By pointing out procedural lapses in the Tamil Nadu government’s decision to remit the sentences of the three, the Centre achieved the purpose of stalling the release of four other convicts in the case—Nalini, Robert Pious, Jayakumar and Ravichandran— whom the TN government had proposed to release after remission. That is because an identical process was followed by the state in proposing remission for all seven.
Not willing to leave anything to chance, the Centre also asked the TN government not to release the four. Also, a substantive petition specifically opposing their possible release may be filed in the SC by early next week.
After succeeding in stalling the impending release of the convicts, the Centre filed a petition in the court seeking a review of its Tuesday order commuting the death sentences of the trio.
Less than 24 hours after the TN government’s decision to remit the sentences and send the proposal for consultation to the Centre with a 72-hour deadline, the UPA government hurriedly drafted an application and placed it before the SC seeking a stay on their release. Aware of the ramifications of a hurried release of the convicts and the accompanying political one-up manship, the bench agreed to hear the Centre’s application within two hours of it being mentioned at 10.30 am.
In keeping with the Centre’s tough response to TN’s decision, solicitor general Mohan Parasaran and additional solicitor general Sidharth Luthra accused TN of throwing the procedure for grant of remission to the winds in its enthusiasm to release them. 

No comments: