States need consent of the centre in such cases, rules court.
By Sreekanth A Nair
The Supreme Court of India has ruled that states have to consult with the central government when exercising their power to reduce sentences of convicts if the case was registered under a central law and investigated by a central agency.
A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court was considering the constitutional issues that emerged after the Tamil Nadu government decided to acquit the assassins of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
The bench headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu ruled, “States have no power to unilaterally remit sentences even under a state law if the case had been investigated by a central investigative agency.”
Upholding its verdict in the Swami Shraddhananda case, the Supreme Court said that if life imprisonment is sentenced for a convict, it must be interpreted as life term without any remission.
According to the constitution of India, the president has the power of remission under article 72 and governor has the power under article 161 and they can exercise the power without considering any court decision.
Tamil Nadu government has decided to release the convicts of Rajiv Gandhi murder, Murugan, Santhan and Arivu in 2014. On February last year, a Supreme Court bench headed by former chief justice P. Sathasivam stayed the decision.
Then the court had viewed that the government failed to follow the procedures properly while taking the decision. The death sentence to the convicts was commuted to life term on February 18, 2014.
Later, the court also stayed the decision of the Tamil Nadu government to release Nalini, Robert Pious, Jayakumar and Ravichandran, who were also convicted in the same case.
The bench referred the legal validity of the decision to release the convicts to a three-judge bench.
Congress party leaders expressed satisfaction over the Supreme Court’s verdict.
The Congress party spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala told The Hindu that state government had no authority to decrease the sentence of persons who were convicted by the central law.
“Life imprisonment of Rajiv Gandhi’s killers was meant for an entire life. This will give a message that after committing such a heinous crime it will be difficult for anyone to escape,” senior Congress leader Shakeel Ahmed was quoted as saying by the Hindu.