Stay on release of Rajiv Gandhi's killers remains

A five-judge Constitution bench comprising the Chief justice H.L. Dattu and Justices Ibrahim Kalifulla, A.M. Sapre, Pinaki Ghose and U.U. Lalit rejected the plea made on behalf of the states of Karnataka, West Bengal and individuals for vacating the stay order passed in July 2014 on the ground that several convicts who had served more than 20 years sentence are languishing in jails. It was suggested that the court could lift the stay insofar as offences investigated by the state Police are concerned and restrict the stay only to those cases investigated by the CBI.

Senior counsel Rakesh Diwedi, appearing for Tamil Nadu and senior counsel Ram Jethmalani, appearing for Rajiv case convicts questioned the maintainability of the writ petition filed by the Centre in February last stating that no fundamental right of the Centre was violated. Mr Jethmalani submitted that the questions framed had nothing to do with the facts of ‘Rajiv case’ and adjudication could be confined to this issue.

But the Chief Justice pointed out that since the court was examining whether life term would mean entire life or sentence could be restricted to a specific term, it would not be possible to isolate the issues. “We are not going to tinker with our earlier order. We will hear this matter fully. Either you come out of jail (if we accept the submission of specific life term) or you don’t come out (if life term means entire life).”

Last year, a three-judge Bench had stayed the release of seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi case, viz Murugan, Santhan, Periarivalan (whose death sentence was commuted to life sentence) and that of Nalini, Robert Pius, Jayakumar and Ravichandran, serving life term in the case.

Pursuant to the Apex Court’s order on February 18, 2014 commuting death sentence into life term of Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan, the Tamil Nadu government in exercise of its remission powers directed their release along with four others.

The Union government got a stay on their release contending that in cases investigation by the CBI, only the Centre had the power of remission and not the state government concerned. The matter has been posted for a day-to-day hearing on July 21.