Chennai: S.Nalini, serving life sentence in Vellore prison for Women for her involvement in Rajiv Gandhi assassination, has approached the Madras high court to direct the state government to implement its order, which advised the Governor of Tamil Nadu to release her under the scheme of premature release of life convicts.
A division bench comprising Justices R.Subbiah and Krishnan Ramaswamy before whom the petition filed by Nalini came up for hearing on Thursday, adjourned it to April 30.
According to Nalini, the state government framed a scheme of premature release of life convicts by its letter dated November 10, 1994, for the purpose of release of the life convicts who had completed 20 years of actual imprisonment on humanitarian grounds. Under the said scheme framed under Article 161 of the Constitution, some of the life convicts who had completed 20 years of actual imprisonment were and were being released by the state government. Since she was eligible to be considered for premature release under the said scheme, the state government had on September 9, 2018, advised the Governor of Tamil Nadu to release her and other six life convicts convicted in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. Since the advice of the state government was binding on the Governor of Tamil Nadu, she ought to have been released long ago. It was more than 6 months since the state government tendered the said advice, but the advice of the council of ministers of the state government remains unimplemented. Therefore, she made a representation dated February 13, 2019, to the state government pointing out that she and other six life convicts were entitled to be released immediately. On February 23, 2019, she had made a representation to the Chief Minister seeking her immediate release. But, her representation has not yet been considered, she added.
