हाई कोर्ट ने लगाई फांसी पर रोक

Madras HC stays hanging of Rajiv's killers

Last Updated: Tuesday, August 30, 2011, 12:03

Chennai: The Madras High Court, Tuesday, put an interim stay on the hanging of the three death row convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

The High Court gave Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan an interim relief of eight weeks and asked the Centre to file an affidavit by that time. The case came to the High Court after their mercy petitions were rejected by the President and September 9 was fixed as the date for their hanging.

Interestingly, the Tamil Nadu Assembly today adopted a unanimous resolution asking the Centre to intervene and move towards granting clemency to the three.
The convicts in their petition had contended that their death sentences should be commuted to life on the ground of 'undue delay' in disposing off of their mercy petitions. Their mercy petitions were pending before the President for 11 long years since April 26, 2000 before being rejected.

Noted criminal lawyer Ram Jethmalani appeared for the convicts. Speaking to reporters after the judgement, Jethmalani said, “I am here because of my friend Vaiko; Vaiko has brought me here, you should be grateful to Vaiko not me, and ultimately you should be grateful to the High Court, the court is doing justice.”

In their plea, the convicts had claimed 'an unwarranted, illegal and unconstitutional delay is caused by the President and the Union of India in the disposal of the mercy petition.'

"No explanation has been offered either for the delay in forwarding of the mercy petitions by the state government to the President or the delay in disposal by both the authorities," they contended.

Subramanian Swamy, who is on the other side of the legal battle, reacted to the judgement by saying that the Attorney General must move to vacate the stay on the execution of Rajiv’s killers.