Supreme Court frees Perarivalan in former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination case

Supreme Court frees Perarivalan in former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination case

Subject: Polity

Section: President

Content:

• The Supreme Court held that the Tamil Nadu Council of Ministers’ advice on September 9, 2018 to pardon Perarivalan was binding on the Governor under Article 161 (Governor’s power of clemency) of the Constitution.
• The Governor had no business forwarding the pardon plea to the President after sitting on it for years together.
• Thus, SC invoked its extraordinary powers to do complete justice under Article 142 of the Constitution.
• After all, the court said, a Governor’s non-exercise of power under Article 161 of the Constitution was not immune from judicial review.
• Also, the Court dismissed the Centre’s argument that the President exclusively, and not the Governor, had the power to grant pardon in a case under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code.
• The court had said that such a contention would render Article 161 a “dead-letter” and create an extraordinary situation whereby pardons granted by Governors in murder cases for the past 70 years would be rendered invalid.
• The Indian Judiciary and the constitution of India believe that every citizen of India must get “complete justice”. The Constitution of India under Article 142 grants the power to the Supreme Court for passing any decree to do “complete justice”
• In the exercise of its authority, the Supreme Court may issue any order required to provide complete justice in the case at hand. Even legislation will not be able to limit the court’s power. In the matter of Chandrakant Patil & or s. v. State Through CBI (1998), The Supreme Court of India ruled that exercising Article 142 is only subject to two conditions.

1. It can only be used if the court is otherwise exercising its jurisdiction,
2. The case or dispute pending before the Supreme Court must require the court’s order for complete justice to be served.