Don’t give remission to life convicts: Apex court to states
10 July 2014 5:58 AM IST
In an order which takes away power to play politics on matters of law, the Supreme Court on Wednesday restrained all states from exercising power of remission for releasing convicts from jail who are serving life sentence and sought their response whether the Centre’s nod was needed for the purpose in cases prosecuted by central agencies like CBI.
A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice RM Lodha issued notices to all state government asking them to file their response by 18 July so that the matter can be taken up for hearing on 22 July. ‘Meanwhile, state governments are restrained from exercising power of remission for releasing life convicts till the next date of hearing,’ the bench, also comprising justices JS Khehar, J Chelameswar, AK Sikri and Rohinton Nariman said in an interim order. The bench made it clear that there was need for a categorical response ‘whether in CBI cases, states have any role on the question of remission to life convicts.’ The issue of remission was referred to the Constitution Bench after the Centre had challenged the Tamil Nadu government’s decision to remit the sentences of all seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
The court had on 20 February stayed the state government’s decision to release three convicts–Murugan, Santhan and Arivu– whose death sentence was commuted to life term by it on 18 February in the case.
A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice RM Lodha issued notices to all state government asking them to file their response by 18 July so that the matter can be taken up for hearing on 22 July. ‘Meanwhile, state governments are restrained from exercising power of remission for releasing life convicts till the next date of hearing,’ the bench, also comprising justices JS Khehar, J Chelameswar, AK Sikri and Rohinton Nariman said in an interim order. The bench made it clear that there was need for a categorical response ‘whether in CBI cases, states have any role on the question of remission to life convicts.’ The issue of remission was referred to the Constitution Bench after the Centre had challenged the Tamil Nadu government’s decision to remit the sentences of all seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
The court had on 20 February stayed the state government’s decision to release three convicts–Murugan, Santhan and Arivu– whose death sentence was commuted to life term by it on 18 February in the case.
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