Aastha Thakur
Published on: 19 June, 2022, 18:06 IST
The Madras High Court on Friday dismissed the writ petitions filed by S Nalini and R.P. Ravichandran, convicts in former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi Assasination case, seeking premature release.
The Bench of Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice N Mala said that it lacks power conferred on the Supreme Court under Article 142 of the Constitution. Hence, the petition was not maintainable, hence dismissed.
The Bench stated that, “no such power is vested under writ jurisdiction of Article 226 of the Constitution. Hence, the powers of the Supreme Court under Article 142 could not be compared to the powers of the High Court under Article 226 and suggested that if the petitioner was seeking a release on the basis of the recent Supreme Court order releasing co-convict Perarivalan, the petitioner could move the Supreme Court.”
The application filed by Nalini sought for declaring that the action of the Governor who failed to act in accordance as unconstitutional while the petition also sought direction to the State government to release the petitioners from prison immediately without the approval of the Governor of Tamil Nadu.