The Supreme Court has issued notices to the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government on a petition seeking transfer of lawsuits filed in the Madras high court by three Rajiv Gandhi assassins asking leniency in the sentence
The Supreme Court has issued notices to the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government on a petition seeking transfer of lawsuits filed in the Madras high court by three Rajiv Gandhi assassins asking leniency in the sentence as the government had taken 11 years to reject their plea for clemency.
Petitioner LK Venkata said the assassins’ plea challenging the death sentence can’t be heard in a “free and fair atmosphere” as several LTTE supporters interfere with the judicial proceedings by raising slogans in support of the convicts.
On August 30, when the high court took up the convicts’ petition and stayed their execution, about 5,000 people gathered on the court premises and “disturbed” the proceedings. The HC then issued notices to the Centre and the Jayalalithaa government seeking the entire records relating to the mercy plea made by the condemned prisoners — Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan alias Arivu. The court said the authorities could file the record within two months.
After the dismissal of their petitions by the Supreme Court, the death row convicts sent mercy petitions to the President about 11 year ago. President Pratibha Devsingh Patil rejected their appeals only a month ago.
As the jail authorities started gearing up their execution, the high court intervened on the law suits saying undue delay in taking a call on the clemency plea amounted to violation of their right to life.
As legal experts are divided on whether undue delay in the disposal of a mercy plea could attract lesser sentence to a condemned prisoner, an SC bench has asked the Tamil Nadu government and the three death row convicts to reply within two weeks why the pending law suits by them couldn’t be heard by another high court.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}