Nalini’s petition to be heard on April 23

CHENNAI

The Madras High Court has decided to take up for final hearing on April 23 a writ appeal preferred by Rajiv Gandhi assassination case convict S. Nalini seeking premature release from prison on humanitarian grounds since she had already completed more than 20 years of incarceration.

Justices K.K. Sasidharan and R. Subramanian posted the case after two weeks since it was represented that Advocate-General Vijay Narayan would be arguing the case on behalf of the State government which had opposed the plea on the ground that the Supreme Court was already seized of the issue.

During the course of the arguments on Wednesday, appellant’s counsel M. Radhakrishnan and P. Pugalendhi contended that the issue before the Supreme Court was with respect to remitting or commuting sentences under the Code of Criminal Procedure (Cr.P.C.) whereas the present plea was to exercise constitutional powers. It was brought to the notice of the court that Section 432 of Cr.P.C. empowers the State governments to remit sentences imposed on convicts and Section 435 requires such remission or commutation to be done only after consultation with the Centre if the convict had been prosecuted by investigating agencies such as the Central Bureau of Investigation.

What Article 161 says

Claiming that the issue before the Supreme Court was only with respect to exercise of power under the Cr.P.C. and as to whether such consultation was necessary or not, the counsel said that in the present writ proceedings Nalini was seeking release by relying upon the Governor’s Constitutional power to remit or commute sentences.

Article 161 of the Constitution authorises the Governor to grant pardons or to suspend, remit or commute sentences in certain cases.