Constitution Bench to decide fate of Rajiv killers

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday deferred the verdict in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and referred the case to a larger Constitution Bench. The Constitution Bench will now decide whether the Tamil Nadu government can release a life term convict whose death sentence has been converted into life imprisonment. 

Saying that an interim order staying Tamil Nadu government’s decision on remission of sentence will continue, the top court added the seven conspirators in the assassination case will not be released for now. 

The apex court bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam framed seven questions to be addressed by the Constitution Bench, including whether after commutation of the death sentence into life imprisonment, can the government further grant them remission by releasing them. 

The Constitution Bench will also address which is the appropriate government under the code of criminal procedure – whether it is the state government or the central government or both. 

The Centre had filed a petition challenging the Tamil Nadu government’s decision to release the life convicts. On February 20, a bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam, Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Shiva Kirti Singh stayed the state government’s order, citing procedural lapses on the part of the State. 

The apex court bench had on February 18 commuted the death sentence of the three conspirators to life imprisonment, citing its January 21 judgement, which held that inordinate, unexplained and unreasonable delay in deciding the mercy petition of death row convicts was a ground for commutation of death to life imprisonment. The Tamil Nadu government subsequently decided to set free all the seven convicts in the case. 

 

(With PTI inputs)