Even as the Madras High Court is yet to deliver its verdict on a writ of habeas corpus petition filed by S. Nalini, convict in the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, early this year, she has filed another plea in the court. The writ seeks wants the Governor’s “failure” to act upon State Cabinet’s September 2018 recommendation, for release of all seven convicts involved in the case, to be declared unconstitutional.
In the habeas corpus plea before a Bench led by Justice R. Subbiah, she had sought her release on the ground that her detention since September 9, 2018 should be considered illegal because the recommendation made by the Council of Ministers was binding upon the Governor and that he could not take a contra view.
In the new plea for a writ of declaration, she sought her release from prison after declaring as unconstitutional the Governor’s “failure” to act upon the recommendation.
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Death sentence
In an affidavit, filed through her counsel M. Radhakrishnan and P. Pugalenthi, the convict said, she was found guilty in the assassination case in 1998 and was sentenced to death by the trial court. The conviction as well as the sentence were confirmed by the Supreme Court on May 11, 1999. Thereafter, she sought pardon and the then Governor commuted her death sentence to life imprisonment on April 24, 2000 by exercising powers under Article 161 of the Constitution.
Thereafter, claiming to have become eligible for premature release in 2001, the 52-year-old convict said, the government was not considering her case at all, even while scores of other convicts were released on occasions such as birth anniversaries of former Chief Ministers. Claiming that the Governor had accepted recommendations made by the Cabinet for release of convicts in other cases, she said, there was no justification for keeping her release pending.
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