Chennai: The Centre has reaffirmed in the Madras High Court its stand that the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case convicts cannot be set free without its consent and said the Tamil Nadu cabinet recommendation for their premature release would have ‘zero’ effect.
The oral submission was made Thursday by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) G Rajagopalan before a bench of Justices R Subbiah and R Pongiappan during the hearing of a petition by Nalini, one of the seven life convicts, seeking to declare her detention as ‘illegal’.
Nalini has moved the court contending that since the Tamil Nadu Governor had failed to order her release based on the September 9, 2018 recommendation of the state cabinet, she is in illegal detention. The bench, which heard arguments from all parties, reserved its orders on her petition.
Opposing the plea of Nalini, the ASG cited a Supreme Court order and said unless there was an order in the name of the governor it was not an illegal detention. He said the resolution passed by the State Council of Ministers is not an order (for release).
Referring to an earlier litigation by Nalini in the Supreme Court, Rajagopalan said then the question raised was whether the State government has the power to release the convicts without the consent or consultation of the Central government under CrPC provisions.
The apex court had held that the Centre’s consent or concurrence was necessary because the case was investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Rajagopalan said.
Already the Central government had refused to release these convicts. Besides, as per the Supreme Court orders, life sentence means imprisonment till death, asserted Rajagopalan.
Intervening, the bench asked the ASG then what will be the effect of the State Cabinet’s decision recommending premature release of the seven convicts (under Article 161 of the Constitution), which is pending before the Governor. To this, the Centre’s counsel said the effect of the resolution passed by the cabinet was ‘Zero’.
Besides Nalini, the other life convicts are her husband Murugan, AG Perarivalan, Santhan, Jayakumar, Ravichandran and Robert Pyas.
PTI