The Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday justified in the Supreme Court its decision to grant remission to seven life convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, saying the situation had changed as there was no presence of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam now.
Senior counsel Rakesh Dwivedi made this submission before a Bench of Chief Justice P. Sathasivam and Justices Ranjan Gogoi and N.V. Ramana, hearing the Centre’s writ petition seeking to quash the February 19 Tamil Nadu order proposing to release the convicts. Earlier, Attorney General G.E. Vahanvati, appearing for the Centre, maintained that as the offences in the present case investigated by the CBI “are relatable to central legislation and also the Indian Penal Code, which are intrinsically connected to each other” the “appropriate government” was the Centre. He said: “The mandate of Article 73 in the Constitution is absolutely clear in as much as that the State Government cannot seek to exercise jurisdiction where it has none.” He also pointed out that in 2008 the State had opposed the release of one of the convicts, Ravichandran, on the ground that the remission power vested with the Centre.
Rejecting this argument, Mr. Dwivedi said: “Under Entry 1 in List III of the Constitution, the executive power is only with the State Government by virtue of Article 162 and proviso to Article 73(1)(a).” Counsel pointed out that all the seven accused were acquitted of Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (TADA) offences and they had already undergone the period of sentence for offences under the Arms Act and other central laws. “Thus it can be seen that with respect to all the seven persons the remission granted under Section 432 was confined to offences under the Indian Penal Code with respect to which the executive power vests only with Tamil Nadu.”
