TN Governor Will Decide Perarivalan's Pardon Within A Week, Supreme Court Told

The Supreme Court on Friday recorded the submission of the Central Government that the application filed by AG Perarivalan, convict in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, will be considered within a week.

The court passed a modified order on Friday as the order passed yesterday(January 21) had led to certain confusions. The Solicitor General had submitted yesterday that the Governor will take a decision within 3-4 days. However, when the order was published in the evening, there was a variance. The order stated that the SG had submitted that the Governor will decide within 4 weeks.

On account of this confusion, the matter was mentioned today for clarification. The Solicitor General clarified that the Governor will decide within a week.

Accordingly, a bench comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao, S Abdul Nazeer and Indu Malhotra passed the following order :

"The learned Solicitor General submitted that the application filed by the Petitioner under Article 161 of theConstitution of India shall be considered within a period of oneweek from today. List this matter after two weeks".

The writ petition was filed by Perarivalan, who was in death row for over two decades, aggrieved with the inaction of the Governor to decide on the recommendation made by the Tamil Nadu government in September 2018 to grant him pardon.

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

Click here to read/download the order