New Delhi: The seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case will not be able to immediately walk out of jail with the Supreme Court on Thursday citing "procedural lapses" by the Tamil Nadu government which decided to release them. The immediate effect of the apex court's order was on three prisoners-- Murugan, Santhan and Arivu-- whose death sentence was commuted to life on February 18 by it as the Centre's petition mentioned only their names but a bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam allowed it to file a separate application on the remaining four prisoners. As the apex court has raised questions and agreed to examine in detail the procedure adopted by the state government in deciding to release them, the seven convicts will remain in jail till further orders.
"Issue notice to the State of Tamil Nadu, Inspector General of Prisons, Chennai, the Superintendent of Central Prison, Vellore and the convicts viz. V Sriharan alias Murugan, T Suthendraraja alias Santhan and A G Perarivalan alias Arivu returnable on March 6, 2014," the bench said adding "Till such date, both parties are directed to maintain status quo prevailing as on date in respect of the convicts". The bench, also comprising justices Ranjan Gogoi and N V Ramana, at the beginning of proceedings expressed surprise on how the state government claimed to have fulfilled all the procedures within a day after the apex court commuted the death sentence of three prisoners.
"The commutation of death sentence into life cannot automatically lead to their release," the bench observed and said state cannot abrogate the procedures required under the law. "Our judgement was pronounced on Tuesday morning and it was available at 5PM and the newspaper reports came out only on Wednesday," the bench said while spelling out the procedures required for release of the convicts. "There are several procedural steps required to be followed and an application has to be filed before a presiding judge of a competent court for remitting sentence which was not done," it said. Solicitor General Mohan Parasarn then said the procedures were not followed and the decision was taken in a hurry by the state government.
Parasaran said the state government was not authorised to deal with the release of convicts as they were held guilty under the Central laws. The court after hearing his arguments said that all procedural checks laid down in the law have not been followed by the state government and it will examine the issue raised by the Centre. Making it clear that it is not taking away the power of the state government to remit sentence, the bench, at the same time, said the states have to follow the procedures.
"We are concerned about the procedural lapses and we will examine the issue," the bench said, adding that "all states are bound to follow the procedure". Senior advocate Rakesh Diwedi, appearing for Tamil Nadu, strongly opposed the plea of Centre saying that the state government has not taken a final decision on the issue. The bench, however, brushed aside his contention saying that newspaper reports said that the Chief Minister made statement regarding this on the floor of the assembly. "We are not underestimating the power of state government but we are examining the procedure followed by it," the bench said when the state government pleaded the court not to pass any order on staying the release of the prisoners. The bench also said that the commutation of death sentence to life imprisonment cannot automatically result in remission of the sentence and the proper procedure laid down in the law has to be follow before releasing the prisoners from jail. The bench posted the matter for hearing on March 6.
