Queency Jain –
A vacation bench of Justices Vineet Saran and Dinesh Maheshwari adjourned the interim bail application of AG Perarivalan who is serving life term imprisonment in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
Perarivalan filed the application in the Supreme Court after there was a lack of final decision on his bail application which he filed earlier after the Tamil Nadu Government in September 2018 recommended releasing him from prison by remitting his sentence.
The Central Government on 7 February 2021informed the Court regarding the proposal made by the Governor of the State of Tamil Nadu.
The Ministry of Home Affairs in their affidavit submitted that the Governor, after analyzing the facts and circumstances of the case stated that the President of India will be the competent authority in providing the assent to the release of Perarivalan and the Central Government must put forward the proposal in accordance with the law.
While the affidavit was filed in pursuance of the Supreme Court’s order of 22 January 2021, the Supreme Court was unhappy with the pending application of remission of the sentence before the Governor for more than 2 years.
Earlier in 2014, the Supreme Court had reduced the punishment of Perarivalan from the death penalty to life imprisonment.
