CHENNAI: After two weeks, the Madras High Court will take up a writ petition filed by Nalini — one of the seven people convicted of assassinating former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi — seeking premature release from jail without the Governor’s consent.
When writ petitions filed by Nalini and another convict, Ravichandran, came up for hearing before the First Bench of Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy, Tamil Nadu Advocate General R Shanmugasundaram said a similar petition filed by one of the convicts, Perarivalan, will be heard by the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
He sought for these petitions to be taken up based on the outcome of Perarivalan’s petition. The bench then adjourned the hearing by two weeks. Nalini has sought premature release without the Governor’s consent, citing the Supreme Court’s order in the Maru Ram Vs Union of India case, which said the State government’s advice under Article 161 of the Constitution binds the Head of State.
Though the Tamil Nadu Cabinet advised the Governor under Article 161 through a decision taken on September 9, 2018 to release the convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, the Governor had not acted upon it.
Nalini, with her husband Murugan @ Sriharan, was arrested days after the assassination at Sriperumbudur on May 21, 1991 during an election campaign. She was sentenced to death by a trial court in 1998. The sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court, and later commuted to a life sentence in 2000.