Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination convict S. Nalini has approached the Supreme Court seeking premature release from life imprisonment.
The Madras High Court had, in June, dismissed writ petitions filed by S. Nalini and R.P. Ravichandran, the life convicts in former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, seeking a direction to the Tamil Nadu government to release them forthwith without waiting further for the Governor’s nod to a September 9, 2018, Cabinet recommendation.
The High Court had held that the Governor’s signature was sine qua non under Article 161 of the Constitution. The court had also observed that it could not exercise extraordinary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to pass an order similar to the one that released A.G. Perarivalan, another convict in the assassination case, on May 18.
Perarivalan had served over 30 years in prison.
