Life term means entire life in jail, says Centre in Rajiv case

Life sentence means imprisonment for one’s entire term of life, the Union Home Ministry clarified in its counter-affidavit filed in the Madras High Court.
Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. (File photo)
Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. (File photo)

CHENNAI: Life sentence means imprisonment for one’s entire term of life, the Union Home Ministry clarified in its counter-affidavit filed in the Madras High Court on Friday.

Hence, life term cannot be restricted to any particular period or number of years, as held by the Supreme Court, said the counter filed in response to the habeas corpus writ petitions from Robert Pyas and Jayakumar, the life convicts in the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi murder case, seeking premature release.

Moreover, the Union Home Ministry has been wrongly included as a party-respondent in the petition, the counter added.
Originally, Robert and Jayakumar filed the petition in 2012 seeking their premature release on account of the Republic Day celebrations which fell on January 26.

When the matter came up on January 23 this year, a division bench of Justices M Jeyachandran and T Mathivanan (both retired) directed the Additional Public Prosecutor to find out whether the names of the duo find a place in the list of convicts to be released prematurely on account of the Republic Day celebrations.

After six months’ delay, the matter came up before the division bench comprising Justices A Selvam and P Kalaiyarasan, last week. And after considering the enormous pendency of the petitions, the judges had directed the authorities concerned to file their counters at the earliest.

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