Rajiv Gandhi Assasination case

TOPIC: Polity

Section: Executive

Context- SC grants bail to Rajiv Gandhi case convict.

Concept-

Rajiv Gandhi Assasination case:

Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on the night of May 21, 1991 at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu by a woman suicide bomber, identified as Dhanu, at an election rally.
The Special Investigative Team had named 41 accused in its charge sheet – including 12, who died in the blast and three who was absconding – before a TADA court in Chennai, 1998.
In May 1999, the Supreme Court had upheld the death sentence of four, including Murugan, Santham, Perarivalan and Nalini, commuted the death sentence of three to life, and freed the remaining 19.
In 2000, the death sentence of one of the accused S Nalini, was reduced to a life sentence by the then Tamil Nadu Governor, at the instance of then Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
In 2014, the Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of Murugan, Santhan, and AG Perivalan to life.
The convicts in the case – Nalini, Santhan, Murugan (Nalini’s husband), A.G. Perarivalan, Robert Payas, Jayakumaran, and Ravichandran —are serving life terms across various jails in Tamil Nadu.
The convicts have been in jail for over 27 years.
In 2016, Tamil Nadu government wrote to Centre seeking its views on its decision to free them which was rejected by the Centre.
Supreme Court gave the Centre three months to decide the Tamil Nadu government’s proposal to remit the sentences of the seven life-term convicts.
Finally, the Supreme Court asked the Tamil Nadu Governor to consider the mercy petition of Perarivalan.

MERCY PLEAS:

Pardoning Power of the President in India:

Under Article 72 of the Constitution, the President shall have the power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any person convicted of any offence where the sentence is a sentence of death.
However The President cannot exercise his power of pardon independent of the government.
In several cases, the SC has ruled that the President has to act on the advice of the Council of Ministers while deciding mercy pleas. These include
- Maru Ram vs Union of India in 1980, and
- Dhananjoy Chatterjee vs State of West Bengal in 1994.
Although the President is bound by the Cabinet’s advice, Article74 (1) empowers him to return it for reconsideration once.
If the Council of Ministers decides against any change, the President has no option but to accept it.

Pardoning Power of the Governor:

Article 161: The Governor of a State shall have the power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any person convicted of any offence against any law relating to a matter to which the executive power of the State extends.

Difference Between Pardoning Powers of President and Governor:

The scope of the pardoning power of the President is wider than the pardoning power of the Governor which differs in the following two ways:
- Court Martial: The power of the President to grant pardon extends in cases where the punishment or sentence is by a Court Martial but Article 161 does not provide any such power to the Governor.
- Death sentence: The President can grant pardon in all cases where the sentence given is the sentence of death but the pardoning power of the Governor does not extend to death sentence cases.