CHENNAI: A division bench of the Madras High Court has pulled up the Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) for filing a counter-affidavit filed in 2012 again before it last week in the matter relating to premature release of Robert Payas and Jayakumar, life convicts in the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
The duo had filed habes corpus petitions in 2012 seeking their premature release on the occasion of Republic Day celebrations, which fell on January 26, 2013.
When the matter came up on January 23 this year, a division bench of Justices M Jaichandren and T Mathivanan (both retired) had directed the Additional Public Prosecutor to find out whether the names of the two figured in the list of convicts to be released prematurely on account of Republic Day celebrations.
After six months, the matter came up before the division bench comprising Justices A Selvam and P Kalaiyarasan, on August 11.
After considering the enormous pendency of the petitions, the judges had directed the authorities concerned to file their counters at the earliest. And the APP filed the 2012 counter on August 18 last, which objected to the premature release of the duo.
When the bench took strong exception on Friday, Additional Public Prosecutor VMR Rajendran prayed the court to grant one more week to file a fresh counter. The judges adjourned the matter till August 22.