NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday sought the responses of the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government in pleas by RP Ravichandran and Nalini, convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, seeking premature release.
“Issue notice returnable on October 14. Liberty to serve the standing counsel for the State of Tamil Nadu and also short notice to ASG KM Nataraj since he had assisted the court in earlier similar matter,” the court said in its order.
Remarking that it won’t be appropriate to pass an order on bail ex parte, a bench of Justices BR Gavai and BV Nagarathna, however, refused to grant interim bail to the convicts. It posted the matter for October 14. The court’s order came in a plea filed by the convicts, who are serving life imprisonment, challenging the Madras High Court’s June 17 order of dismissing their plea for premature release.
While observing that the HC does not have special powers enjoyed by the Supreme Court under Article 142 of the Constitution of India, a bench of Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice N Mala had said, “The power under Article 142 of the Constitution of India can be exercised only by the apex court and no such power exists with the high court.
The aforesaid goes to the root of the case to hold that without the signature of the governor to authorise the resolution, this court cannot pass an order directing the state government to release the accused, otherwise the direction therein would not only offend Article 161 of the Constitution of India, but also Article 163 of the Constitution of India.”
Citing that the convicts were out on parole due to Covid, senior advocate Sanjay Hegde, appearing for Ravichandran and S Nalini, had sought grant of interim bail. Before the top court, the convicts while seeking premature release had cited the SC’s May 18 order of invoking its jurisdiction under Article 142 of the Constitution and ordering release of AG Perarivalan, the convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case who had served over 30 years in jail. A bench headed by Justice LN Rao had said that the Tamil Nadu state cabinet’s advice recommending premature release of all the seven convicts was binding on the governor.
Also in top court
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