Amitha Murlidharan
A Bench comprising Justice L. Nageswara Rao, Hemant Gupta, and Ajay Rastogi of the Supreme Court heard the submissions of Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan about requesting an extension by a week of the parole of A G Perarivalan, who is serving a life sentence in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case in 1991.
The Bench directed the Tamil Nadu government to provide police escort to Perarivalan during his visit to doctors in the hospital.
While granting the submission the court stated, “We will hear the matter on the next date for final disposal.”
During the last hearing, the Apex court had expressed utmost displeasure over the delay of a plea by a convict seeking a pardon in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case for over two years with the Tamil Nadu Governor.
The Bench was also hearing the petition submitted by Perarivalan requesting release from the prison based on the recommendation made by the State Government.
Senior Advocate Sankaranarayanan, appearing for Perarivalan, stated that the governor is not acting on the mercy petition of the convict Perarivalan since two years when the state government had recommended it.
The Court asked Sankaranarayanan to submit the Bench about the precedents where the courts have issued directions to the governor also asked whether the court can direct the governor on constitutional authority to decide on Article 161 of the Constitution.
Justice Rao referred judgment in the Shatrughan Chauhan case (2014), and Sankaranarayanan went through the Nilofer Nisha judgment of the Supreme Court.
The Additional Advocate General of Tamil Nadu, Balaji Srinivasan, informed the Bench that the governor cannot decide without getting the report from Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency is looking into the angle of ‘larger conspiracy’ behind the case.
ASG K M Nataraj told the Court that the investigation is on the angle of ‘larger conspiracy’.
But the court stated that the larger conspiracy cannot be related to a person who spent 28 years in jail and it can only be related to some other in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
The court postponed the hearing to November 23.