Supreme Court Adjourns Perarivalan's Plea For Interim Bail In Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case

A vacation bench comprising Justices Vineet Saran and Dinesh Maheshwari adjourned the matter on the basis of a letter for adjournment circulated by the petitioner(Perarivalan).

The interim bail application was filed by Perarivalan citing the 'stalemate' over the lack of final decision on the recommendation made by the Tamil Nadu government to release him from prison after remitting his sentence.

The relief has been sought through an application filed in Perarivalan's plea pending before the top Court, seeking release from the prison based on the recommendation made by the State Government in September 2018 to grant him pardon.

The Centre had on Feb 4^th 2021 informed the Supreme Court that the Tamil Nadu Governor has proposed that the President of India is the competent authority to deal the request of remission of sentence in case of AG Perarivalan.

The Ministry of Home Affairs had submitted an affidavit stating that the Tamil Nadu Governor, after considering facts and circumstances of the case, recorded that the President would be the competent authority and the Central Government will process the proposal in accordance with the law.

The affidavit was filed by the Home Ministry on behalf of the Government in pursuance of the Supreme Court's order dated 22nd January 2021, whereby it had asked the Governor to decide the petitioner's application for remission. 

The top Court had earlier expressed unhappiness over the fact that the recommendation made by the Tamil Nadu state government for the remission of the sentence had been pending before the Governor for over two years.

In 2014, the Supreme Court had commuted the death penalty to Perarivalan and two others to life imprisonment on account of long pendency of his mercy plea.