TN moves SC for review of verdict on Rajiv killers' remission

The Tamil Nadu government has moved the Supreme Court seeking review of its judgement in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case in which it was ruled that the Centre has "primacy" over states' right to grant remission.

The petition sought review of the apex court's verdict in December last year virtually overturning the state government's clemency decision.

A five-judge bench had said the state governments must secure "concurrence" of the Union government before freeing convicts in certain cases.

The review petition said as per the Criminal Procedure Code, the central government had no primacy in matters relating to remission or commutation of sentence and that it was "erroneous" on the part of apex court bench to hold that Centre had a "special status" under the constitutional scheme.

"In the case of remitting the sentence of the convicts, it is the state government which is the executive authority more competent to decide the outcome of such release/remission of convicted persons because of its proximity to the facts and circumstances relating to the case pertaining to conviction of the convicts," it said.

The court, which had settled questions arising out of Tamil Nadu government's decision to free Gandhi's assassins, had dealt elaborately with the situations where the Centre will prevail over states' decision to grant remission which included cases where their powers are co-extensive, where trial has been held under central laws or conducted by agencies like CBI, or when they pertain to death penalty.

The Constitution bench had said states cannot exercise "suo motu" the power to grant remission without any specific plea from the convicts.

The apex court had on February 20, 2014 stayed the Tamil Nadu government's decision to release three convicts -Murugan, Santhan and Arivu, whose death sentence had been commuted to life term by it two days before.

The Supreme Court had later also stayed the release of four other convicts -- Nalini, Robert Pious, Jayakumar and Ravichandran, saying there were procedural lapses on part of the state government.

Santhan, Murugan and Arivu are currently lodged in the Central Prison, Vellore. The other four are also undergoing life sentence for their role in Gandhi's assassination on May 21, 1991 in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu.

The Center had asserted that the killers of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi did nor deserve any mercy as the assassination was the result of a conspiracy involving foreign nationals.

The Tamil Nadu government, on the other hand, had asserted that the states have power to grant remission under the law and trashed accusations that its decision to release the seven convicts was "political and arbitrary".