The Madras High Court on Monday ordered notice to the Centre on the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case convict S. Nalini’s plea to declare as unconstitutional Section 435(1)(a) of Code of Criminal Procedure which requires the State governments to hold consultations with the Centre before ordering premature release of life convicts whose cases have been investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quddhose passed the order despite petitioner’s counsel M. Radhakrishnan’s absence to argue the case in view of a court boycott call given by the Madras High Court Advocates Association (MHAA) in view of an unprecedented violence between lawyers and police on the High Court premises on February 19, 2009 which the lawyers observe as ‘Black Day’ every year.
In her petition, Nalini had also urged the court to quash certain portions of a Government Order (GO) issued on February 1 this year for release of convicts who had completed 10 years of incarceration, in commemoration of former Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran’s birth centenary, because those portions deny the benefit to those who fall under the purview of Section 435 of CrPC.
