SC stalls Jaya’s ‘poll plan’

• Centre moves SC for review of its judgement commuting death sentence of 3 convicts
• We are concerned with procedural lapses and we will examine it : CJI P Sathasivam
• Letting them off will be contrary to all principles of justice, ‘attack on soul of India’: PM
• Those who commit such heinous crimes cannot be made symbols of identity politics:BJP
• DMK chief Karunanidhi says TN government acted hastily by not following due process

New Delhi: The Supreme Court stopped Tamil Nadu from releasing convicts in the 1991 assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, which was seen as a populist and politically-loaded decision ahead of the national election due by May.

Wasting no time, Centre on Thursday moved SC for review of its judgement commuting death sentence of 3 convicts to life term.

Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam said, "We are concerned with procedural lapses on the part of the State government and we will examine it."

"We are not underestimating the power of state government but we are examining the procedure followed by it," the bench said when the state government pleaded the court not to pass any order on staying the release of the prisoners.

"The commutation of death sentence into life cannot automatically lead to their release," the bench observed and said State cannot abrogate the procedures required under the law.

"There are several procedural steps required to be followed and an application has to be filed before a presiding judge of a competent court for remitting sentence which was not done," it said.

Solicitor General Mohan Parasarn then said the procedures were not followed and the decision was taken in a hurry by the state government. Parasaran said the state government was not authorised to deal with the release of convicts as they were held guilty under the Central laws.

The Centre had challenged the Jayalalithaa government's right to grant freedom to three of the convicts, Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan, who had been spared execution by the Supreme Court on Tuesday because of an exceptional delay in a decision on their mercy plea. The three men can't be released for now, says the Supreme Court, which will take up the case next on March 6. Four others are serving life term, including Murugan's wife Nalini Sriharan, who was granted mercy on Congress president Sonia Gandhi's intervention.

The TN government interpreted the earlier court's order to claim that these four can technically be released anytime. All the convicts have spent 23 years in jail.

Less than 24 hours after the Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of the three men to life term on Tuesday, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa announced that all seven convicts in the case would be freed. She asked the Centre to give its views "within three days", after which, she said, she would go ahead.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said letting them off would be contrary to all principles of justice as Rajiv Gandhi's assassination was "an attack on the soul of India."

"The release of the killers of a former Prime Minister of India and our great leader, as well as several other innocent Indians, would be contrary to all principles of justice," the Prime Minister asserted.

The BJP's came out with a surprisingly sharp condemnation after being accused of keeping silent because of its plans for a poll tie-up with Jayalalithaa's AIADMK in Tamil Nadu. "Why is Narendra Modi silent?" union minister Kapil Sibal had asked.

Describing the decision to free the convicts as unconscionable, senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley said in a blog, "After assassinating a former Prime Minister how there can be institutional compassion for such persons is difficult to comprehend.

Those who commit such heinous crimes cannot be made symbols of identity politics." DMK chief Karunanidhi said the government had acted hastily by not following due process. Stating that any move to release killers would be "illegal", senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy said that President's rule should be imposed in TN if Jayalalithaa did not "desist" from proceeding with the decision.

"I demand that the Centre issue a direction under Article 256 of the Constitution to the TN CM to desist from pursuing (the) illegal resolution on Rajiv's killers," Swamy said.