TIA NEWS /
Supreme Court today held that States cannot exercise statutory power to remit sentences of convicts, tried under central laws and probed by central agencies like CBI without consulting the Union government.
Settling the constitutional issues that had arisen out of the Tamil Nadu government’s decision to set free the convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, the apex court said that though the states have power to grant remission, they cannot exercise it suo motu.
A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu, who is demitting office today, also said that the Centre will have primacy in granting remission to convicts in cases registered under central law and probed by central agencies like CBI.
The bench referred to a three-judge bench the factual and legal aspects of grant of remission to convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
The apex court had on February 20, last year stayed Tamil Nadu government’s decision to release three convicts — Murugan, Santhan and Arivu, whose death sentence had been commuted to life term by it. The court had later also stayed the release of four other convicts saying there were procedural lapses on part of the state government.