A pitched legal battle between Centre, state over mercy petition

NEW DELHI: In drawing curtains over the mercy plea of Rajiv Gandhi assassination case convict AG Perarivalan, the Supreme Court was not oblivious to the pitched legal battle between the Centre and Tamil Nadu government before every court whenever the matter came up for consideration.

The first major confrontation between the state and Centre which the Court noted in its judgment emerged from a communication dated February 19, 2014, sent by the state government headed by then CM J Jayalalithaa to the Centre, proposing to remit the sentence of Perarivalan and six other convicts. The move came hours after the top court commuted the convicts’ death sentence to life term. The then Union government headed by PM Manmohan Singh, however, decided to approach SC for a direction restraining the state from releasing the convicts. The SC granted status quo while referring the matter to a Constitution Bench which decided by majority that Centre will have primacy and its concurrence will be required by the state in proceeding with the remission for the assassination convicts. In 2015, Perarivalan moved a mercy plea before then TN Governor for remission. In 2016, the state moved a fresh proposal to the Centre, proposing remission of the seven convicts. As SC directed the Centre to consider it within three months, the Centre rejected the same in 2018. Later that year, the TN Cabinet passed a resolution seeking release of the convicts.

In the meantime, Perarivalan approached Madras HC, requesting for orders to expedite the investigation into the larger conspiracy in the assassination case, which was being carried out by the Cbi-led MDMA.