The Madras High Court on Monday wondered how long the government would keep citing a State Cabinet recommendation pending with Governor Banwarilal Purohit since September 9 to order release of all seven life convicts in the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
Justices M.M. Sundresh and M. Nirmal Kumar raised the question during the hearing of individual habeas corpus petitions filed by two of the life convicts — Robert Payas and S. Jayakumar — in 2012, seeking their premature release from prison since they were incarcerated for over two decades.
The two cases had been gathering dust for the last seven years and were revived for active hearing only recently, after another convict in the assassination case, S. Nalini, began taking steps to prevail upon the Governor to take an early decision on the recommendation made by the State Cabinet.
Ever since the cases got revived, a government counsel had been obtaining adjournments periodically citing the pending recommendation.
On Monday, he sought for another opportunity to obtain instructions on the present recommendation’s status and got the case adjourned to July 30.
Another Division Bench of Justices R. Subbiah and C. Saravanan adjourned a writ petition filed by Ms. Nalini seeking premature release, by four weeks, after a government advocate sought time to file a detailed counter affidavit. Her other writ petition seeking a direction directly to the Governor was also pending in the court.