Rajiv killing: SC to hear Centre's remission plea on July 21

The Supreme Court today deferred to July 21 the hearing on the issue of power of remission by the Centre and the states, which had arisen after Tamil Nadu government had decided to remit the sentences and set free seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
A five-judge Constitutional bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu, which began hearing the matter that was referred to it on April 25 last year, was informed by the Centre that the issue would require extensive hearing for three to four days.
The bench, which also comprised Justices F M I Kalifulla, P C Ghose, Abhay Manohar Sapre and U U Lalit, then told Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, representing the Centre, that it was sitting for a day only in the present combination this week and adjourned the hearing to July 21.

The court would also examine whether state governments also have any power of remission in the prosecution launched by central agencies like CBI.
Senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, appearing for V Sriharan alias Murugan, one of the seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi murder case, however, opposed the Centre's submission in the case saying that the matter did not require that much time.
Jethmalani, in his written submission, said citizens could file writ petitions for enforcement of their fundamental rights and "Union of India is not a citizen but State under Article 12; it has no such rights vested in it".

"The present petition is not maintainable for additional reason that it seeks to challenge the correctness of a final judgement of this court through a writ petition under Article 32", his written submission said.
"It is well settled in law that a judgement of this court cannot be challenged by way of a petition under Article 32. The only remedy is by way of a Review or Curative petition," it said, adding, "the stay obtained in respect of remissions all over the country (not confined to the present convicts) continues unlawfully even today".
Earlier the court, on the plea of then UPA government, had stayed Tamil Nadu's decision to set free all the seven convicts after remitting their sentences. It had framed seven questions to be decided by a Constitution bench on the scope of executives' power of remission.