Supreme Court stays states’ right to remit lifers

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday restrained all states from exercising the power of remission for releasing from jail convicts serving life sentences. The apex court also sought the states’ response to whether the Centre’s nod was needed before granting remission to convicts in cases prosecuted by Central agencies like the CBI.

A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice R.M. Lodha issued notices to all state governments asking them to file their responses by July 18 so that the matter can be taken up for hearing on July 22.

“Meanwhile, state governments are restrained from exercising the power of remission for releasing life convicts till the next date of hearing,’ the bench, also comprising Justices J.S. Khehar, J.  Chelameswar, A.K. Sikri and Rohinton Nariman, said in an interim order.

The bench made it clear that a categorical response was needed on “whether in a CBI cases states have any role on the question of remission to life convicts”.

The issue of remission was referred to the Constitution Bench after the Centre had challenged the Tamil Nadu government’s decision to remit the sentences of all seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

The court had on February 20 stayed the state government’s decision to release three convicts — Murugan, Santhan and Arivu  — whose death sentences it had been commuted to life terms on February 18 in the case.

It had later also stayed the release of four other convicts — Nalini, Robert Pious, Jayakumar and Ravichandran — in the case, saying there were procedural lapses on the part of the government.

When the matter came for hearing along with other similarly situated convicts, including the Red Fort attack case, solicitor-general Ranjit Kumar submitted that the Tamil Nadu government had no power to exercise jurisdiction in cases investigated and prosecuted by Central probe agencies like the CBI.